Should be a brilliant spectacle with players social distancing and observing the 2m rule. Our back 4 should be in their element.
All it takes is one player to contract it and it would all be off.
And if (god forbid) a player was to actually die, the Premiership would be in a world of hurt.
It can also cause long term damage to lung function so could harm future careers.
If it happens it seems a case of more money than sense...
As mentioned above, how this could be justified when the current situation is calling for all hands on deck from medical professionals, it just boggles the mind. Yeah you guys who have come out of retirement and don't have an appropriate level of PPE we are making it a priority to get on with football. This completely ignores the other support staff who will be required to be in close proximity to each other. Are we going to divert severely needed tests to test players, coaches, medical staff, security (even behind closed doors there will be some) etc before every game?
The decision to not call sporting events off is now looking like a very poor decision (see reports about Liverpool vs Madrid) given the current information we have. There is no way they should be starting the season again any time soon.
The players and coaches would all form their own isopods.
Put yourself in their shoes - would you be willing to be a human experiment?
Twice a week you'll come into contact with 20+ people who themselves were in contact with 80+ different people (at a minimum) over the course of the prior two weeks (the two week incubation period, during which teams will play 4 games)
You'll be exposed to 40+ potential carriers every week for a month at least (two matches a week)
If they have to test each squad plus support staff to make sure they are negative, you'll have to do that with all 20 teams. The entire squad plus coaching / support staff (50+ total?) each day for 45 days.
That's (conservatively) c.45,000 tests to make sure players and staff supporting them, training together and playing twice a week, can complete the season "safely"
We can't even test health workers and their families. What will people think of such an extravagant use of resources?! It'll be a PR disaster for the PL, and a logistical nightmare
My tuppence? They need to show all reasonable effort was made to play the matches for contractural reasons - they have no intention of finishing the season
It's a non-starter
I agree with your sentiments but I think you are underestimating how easy it might be to pull this off.
The players and coaches would all form their own isopods. They'd be tested. All the ancillary staff would observe very stringent distancing and cleaning regimes and numbers would be kept to mininium.
Assuming you were half-way competent (and the players aren't not sneaking off with prostitutes), it's really not that hard to execute this with minimal risk. Everything could be controlled, the only issue could be to do with ambulances and hospitals but as I understand it, there's a lot of chicanery with private hospitals and so forth.
Obviously the reason why this is possible is that they have, presumably, near unlimited resources. This crisis has exposed many of the iniquities in our society, but It probably won't change them.
I don't believe it is as easy as you think, where are they going to form their isopods? How will they get to games? Coach? Plane? Where will they stay the night before away games? Where will their meals come from? Who administers their regular tests? Who will ensure everywhere they go and everything they come in to contact with is disinfected? How will they be kept entertained? Who will get their shopping for them? Are you really going to make them isolate from their families for a month or however long the season will take? If not who supervises and cares for the family members?
There are so many new infection vectors introduced by starting the season up again and so much to try and control that it becomes impossible to entirely eradicate the risks.
EDIT that also entirely ignores the fact that so many of the players in the PL are either too stupid, ignorant or just don't care about others enough to listen to the rules, see the numerous stories on players breaking quarantine, including a new one today from Everton on Kean.
I'll take wild guess - MONEY!I know this is a football forum but quite frankly football can go and eat itself.
If cricket and all other sports are postponing all games until further notice what makes football think it’s so much more special?
I know this is a football forum but quite frankly football can go and eat itself.
If cricket and all other sports are postponing all games until further notice what makes football think it’s so much more special?
It's been repoorted this morning that most PL clubs will be back at the training grounds for (socially isolated) training by the end of this week.There's just no chance
Players will need a two week pre-season - how will they get fit to cope with playing 2 games a week for a month after being inactive for two months?
To get done by June 30th, they'll have to start training in mid-may
Even now there aren't enough tests for health workers and their families - how on earth will the players and various support staff safely play, and know from one week to the next they haven't been infected, and aren't infecting others?
This is a pipedream
It's been repoorted this morning that most PL clubs will be back at the training grounds for (socially isolated) training by the end of this week.