Premier League officially postponed until 17th of June

[Wsussexspur]

They may play games in June but there will be no spectators. I cannot visualise large public gatherings being allowed for some time yet. So what are clubs going to do about the games season ticket holders have missed out on?

Refund them obviously! Or let us use it as credit towards next season-seasons ticket when ever we can start going to games

 

[NickHSpurs]

What I would like to see announced is this...

The Premier League season will be finished behind closed doors and every single Premier League game will be televised with packages up for sale to Sky, BT & Amazon as well as abroad. The EPL will then distribute that TV money to every club in the football league.

Starting next week, every single squad player and all staff will completely isolate in "camp" for one week, not coming into contact with anyone at all. Anyone with symptoms will need to do this for two weeks. Test every single player and member of staff before and after to ensure that they cannot infect each during training and games.

After the isolation period, training begins with some training ground friendlies to get some match sharpness.

Then at the end of May and during June the competitive games start up with games every single day of the week across Sky, BT and Amazon etc.

I know that doesn't solve what happens with the Championship, League One & League Two but unfortunately for them they do not have the finances or facilities to be able to do the above like the Premier League can. I'm not sure the sharing of that TV money would ever happen but it would be amazing to see.

 

[Trees]

Totally. I also have no doubt that Spurs can survive the financial hit, but can Norwich, Brighton, Bournemouth or Crystal Palace? That I'm not so sure of. It's for the sake of those clubs that they have to explore all options to try to finish the season.

We have to show solidarity and help all clubs, both PL and lower divisions, get through this. Too many clubs that are pillars of their communities are already on the brink of insolvency, this will surely push a lot over the edge.

My son is in the Norwich academy. Well run club no huge debts. Sold Maddison a couple of years ago to ease their financial worries and have no over burdened themselves this time in Prem.

Palace, Bournemouth, Villa, Everton and Watford most in trouble.
Palace - re mortgaged transfer fees due with an Australian bank. Prudent ? Bournemouth / Watford small stadium hugely reliant on TV income. Everton even with benefactor have very high wages to turnover. Villa were a financial basket case before all this. Their new owners are quite rich, but £100m in debts and were already breaching fair play rules. If they go down, I would fear for them.

Swiss Ramble on twitter.

 

[Saoirse]

It’s just so obvious. I’m convinced a deal can be done with sky for more coverage next season and that’s really the main stumbling block. It’s like anyone who is in debt or has a failing business the worst thing is uncertainty. If you end the season you have clarity and can plan accordingly. It might not be pretty but at least you know where you stand.

That's fine for the Premier League. But it does little for the Football League, which is reliant on gate money rather than TV and is therefore in huge trouble. It's basically going to have to be bailed out by one or more of players giving up pay, fans paying for non-existant matches, money being sent down from the Premier League, or the Government stepping in, else many, many teams will be bankrupt. And after this, the structure really does need to change. The Championship in particular sees several teams at a huge advantage due to parachute payments, and a large majority of the others running wage-to-turnover ratios of over 100% to desperately try and compete - it was unsustainable at the best of times, and the gap simply has to close. I know it'd be controversial, but I do wonder whether one outcome could be the Premier League reducing to 18 teams, and a new Premier League 2 formed which I think some chairmen mooted a few years ago - the 2 clubs no longer in the PL, 14 teams from the Championship, plus Celtic and Rangers which would be attractive to the broadcasters we're going to need to bribe with goodies. One advantage of that is that those two clubs have far more appeal to the overseas rights holders than simply promoting a couple of extra Championship teams so could make for good negotiating leverage. You'd then see the Premier League with slightly lower TV rights than it has now (but less fixture congestion), and the new league somewhere inbetween the PL and Championship.

 

[Saoirse]

My son is in the Norwich academy. Well run club no huge debts. Sold Maddison a couple of years ago to ease their financial worries and have no over burdened themselves this time in Prem.

Palace, Bournemouth, Villa, Everton and Watford most in trouble.
Palace - re mortgaged transfer fees due with an Australian bank. Prudent ? Bournemouth / Watford small stadium hugely reliant on TV income. Everton even with benefactor have very high wages to turnover. Villa were a financial basket case before all this. Their new owners are quite rich, but £100m in debts and were already breaching fair play rules. If they go down, I would fear for them.

Swiss Ramble on twitter.

If that does happen with Villa, we should be on to Grealish pronto given a second chance.

 

[yankspurs]

I suspect negotiations have been ongoing between all parties since the first postponement. Something will have to be decided before July though because not starting next season is more damaging than not finishing this one. They’ll work something out.

I’d be floored if there is football next season

 

[The Scarecrow]

Nah

I couldn't care less personally. Wouldn't want Spurs to win it like that. It's a tainted triumph.

 

[Colonel Dax]

Even if PL next season starts behind closed doors, will CL and Europa games go ahead? Squads of players + coaches and support staff travelling around Europe before a vaccine has been rolled out would be unwise surely.

 

[yankspurs]

My son is in the Norwich academy. Well run club no huge debts. Sold Maddison a couple of years ago to ease their financial worries and have no over burdened themselves this time in Prem.

Palace, Bournemouth, Villa, Everton and Watford most in trouble.
Palace - re mortgaged transfer fees due with an Australian bank. Prudent ? Bournemouth / Watford small stadium hugely reliant on TV income. Everton even with benefactor have very high wages to turnover. Villa were a financial basket case before all this. Their new owners are quite rich, but £100m in debts and were already breaching fair play rules. If they go down, I would fear for them.

Swiss Ramble on twitter.

Villa was always going to be in a whole heap of trouble if they went down this year with or without coronavirus. The new owners seemed to have a made a conscientious decision to rely on loans and expiring contracts in the championship to get promoted. Getting promoted and immediately going back down after having to buy a whole new team was probably the worst possible scenario for them. Covid-19 will have only exacerbated the clubs financial woes.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

The first match thread when play resumes is going to be erm, interesting

 

[yankspurs]

Even if PL next season starts behind closed doors, will CL and Europa games go ahead? Squads of players + coaches and support staff travelling around Europe before a vaccine has been rolled out would be unwise surely.

Incredibly unwise. Which is why its highly doubtful there is football next season. They wont just cancel Europe without cancelling domestic.

 

[Saoirse]

Even if PL next season starts behind closed doors, will CL and Europa games go ahead? Squads of players + coaches and support staff travelling around Europe before a vaccine has been rolled out would be unwise surely.

I expect we'd see it postponed with domestic games shifted forwards to try and leave six weeks or so for Europe at the end of the season. If that couldn't happen, perhaps you could have a World Cup style format - all games in one country with no fans and players tested upon entry, and either straight knockouts or only playing other teams in the group stage one to expediate it a bit.

 

[Tiberius Gracchus]

They may play games in June but there will be no spectators. I cannot visualise large public gatherings being allowed for some time yet. So what are clubs going to do about the games season ticket holders have missed out on?

Refund it in the form of credit on the spurs accpunt. Can't be withdrawn but can be used to offset the next season ticket renewal

 

[tototoner]

One way of cancelling the leagues I suspect is to award the PL to Liverscum and not to relegate anyone and promote the top two or three/four in those automatic promotion positions in the Championship and leagues one and two. The only ones that would moan would be the teams in the play off places but any decision will end up with unhappy teams and its all about reducing the legal ramifications I suspect.

Then next season you relegate four/five/six teams

I suspect thats how it could and may play out.

i suggested this a few weeks ago, with 4 teams being relegated the next season to bring the numbers down to 20 again

 

[rossdapep]

What I would like to see announced is this...

The Premier League season will be finished behind closed doors and every single Premier League game will be televised with packages up for sale to Sky, BT & Amazon as well as abroad. The EPL will then distribute that TV money to every club in the football league.

Starting next week, every single squad player and all staff will completely isolate in "camp" for one week, not coming into contact with anyone at all. Anyone with symptoms will need to do this for two weeks. Test every single player and member of staff before and after to ensure that they cannot infect each during training and games.

After the isolation period, training begins with some training ground friendlies to get some match sharpness.

Then at the end of May and during June the competitive games start up with games every single day of the week across Sky, BT and Amazon etc.

I know that doesn't solve what happens with the Championship, League One & League Two but unfortunately for them they do not have the finances or facilities to be able to do the above like the Premier League can. I'm not sure the sharing of that TV money would ever happen but it would be amazing to see.

How do they not come into contact with catering staff?

What about coaches and medical staff?

 

[NickHSpurs]

How do they not come into contact with catering staff?

What about coaches and medical staff?

Like I said mate, all players and all staff tested and locked down with no contact prior to mixing with each other.

 

[Monkey boy]

Like I said mate, all players and all staff tested and locked down with no contact prior to mixing with each other.

so we can’t get enough test kits for front line workers who are fighting and sometimes paying with their lives but we can make sure that a couple of hundred are made available to a bunch of millionaire footballers just so that we can complete a season?

 

[Shadydan]

so we can’t get enough test kits for front line workers who are fighting and sometimes paying with their lives but we can make sure that a couple of hundred are made available to a bunch of millionaire footballers just so that we can complete a season?

Tells you how far away playing a football match really is, think people need to expect to wait a long time until we see a ball kicked again.

 

[NickHSpurs]

so we can’t get enough test kits for front line workers who are fighting and sometimes paying with their lives but we can make sure that a couple of hundred are made available to a bunch of millionaire footballers just so that we can complete a season?

Money talks unfortunately mate, as much as we'd all like to see NHS staff tested before anyone else the reality is that if EPL clubs want the tests, they'll get them. I'd go as far to suggest they've probably already got them and any players wanting a test have probably already had one.

 

[vegassd]

Starting next week, every single squad player and all staff will completely isolate in "camp" for one week, not coming into contact with anyone at all. Anyone with symptoms will need to do this for two weeks. Test every single player and member of staff before and after to ensure that they cannot infect each during training and games.

After the isolation period, training begins with some training ground friendlies to get some match sharpness.

Then at the end of May and during June the competitive games start up with games every single day of the week across Sky, BT and Amazon etc.

The "festival of football" is a neat idea but it's a hell of a lot of people away from their families for 10 weeks or more. One infection and the entire thing is in jeopardy of failing, and I don't think it tackles the issue of fans breaking lockdown rules to watch/celebrate matches.

If the government can get up to 100k tests per day by the end of the month then this setup would be more viable - and certainly something the PL should be investigating to be as prepared as possible - but it feels a long way off.