Thetownend.com

If this pandemic lasts for 12 or 18 months before things return to whatever normal is then, what state will football, as we know it, be in?

There’s no way a host of clubs, ourselves included, could survive with no income. Players get laid off, owners whose businesses fund clubs go bankrupt. Even the big boys whose wage bill is virtually what they get from TV and sponsors will not be immune.

What would STFC fans do without STFC?

It won't last that long, we'll have all had it by then if we are going to catch it.

well, we have to hope that doesn't happen. So many businesses will go under not just football

from an stfc point of view we'd need financial help. But there are bugger fish to fry for the government.

Maybe a mothballing of the club and with minimum maintenance and layoff of all staff with the hope of resurrecting it later?

But I think 12-18 months is alarmist even if hypothetical. hopefully

There won't be much point in keeping people isolated after a point, surely? The whole idea is to slow the spread to help the health system cope. What's the point in keeping people inside when most of us have already had it?

Although a second wave in the winter could be troublesome I suppose. Which was supposedly what Boris was trying to account for in his bungled attempt at dealing with it.

I assume even with the PL now there are going to be issues, yes they have the TV money but that's based upon a contract to provide football for the broadcasters to show, will depend what the contracts say but as the PL is not providing the service its contracted to provide are the TV companies going to want their cash back?

As I said originally, one of the biggest problems will be how some owner’s businesses have fared during the crisis. If they are close to being unsustainable I’d imagine they’d jettison a football club pretty quickly if it meant their core business survived.

well sky and bt have said no refunds to customers so surely they cant ask for money back from clubs.

Where does Power actually get his cash from?


Will all depend what the contracts say I suspect?

Clubs will mothball - lay off all non-playing staff and as many players as possible and then rebuild as and when they have to.

I'd imagine we'd go bowl-in-hand to the council for a break on rent, ask fans to contribute to the running costs of a mothballed organisation. If there are no players, no staff, no rent and minimal operating costs, the entity survives but the rebuild would be carnage.

Sky will allow you to remove your sports subscription with notice charge.

But if the fans have no income,  no work.............   vicious circle,  it ain't gonna end pretty.

I was just thinking the self same thing. For all the time being here and, supposedly, injecting funds regularly, just where does he get it from?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/01/mafia-bust-how-do-mobsters-make-a-living-in-the-21st-century.html

The Italian spirit is alive and well in Marsh Farm Luton

https://twitter.com/CamLTFC1/status/1239327611265986565

Coming to a Facebook site near you soon!!

Ah. That explains it. Ta.

TBH I think Power has lots of fingers in lots of pies, probably will have a cash flow problem though, definately going to be challenging times for him and the club and all of lower league football too.

We could be better off than most as we have just got a chunk of season ticket money in. Clubs that haven't started season ticket sales yet will be running on fumes. I listened to the Price of Football podcast on this subject earlier this week, they reckoned it would cost c £15m to replace the lost income for the 4/5 games remaining for all L1 and L2 clubs (which are the clubs most at risk) i.e. it would cost each PL club £750k to make a solidarity payment to keep the bottom 2 divisions going. Or possibly the PL itself which apparently had cash reserves of over £1bn at the start of the season might dip in to help out.

Therein lies the problem, the Premier League, who never make money available further down the ladder to help out anyone.

I think they may have to this time, or risk the English football pyramid as we know it just collapsing. That's a lot of cheap lower league talent they will miss out on if that happens, it will certainly cost them more than £750k each to replace from abroad. Assuming they even can buy in from abroad in a post-virus, post-Brexit world.

What about the Championship, with the wages there compared to the revenues I wonder whether this is the real ticking time bomb!

Yes I thought that too. They didn't discuss that, frustratingly, just what kind of bailout the bottom two divisions would need and how (comparatively) easy it would be to provide it and how the PL clubs would largely be all right (for now). But if this goes on for 6 months or more, it could start to impact PL clubs as well - large contracts and no income, although a lot of those contracts are heavily incentivised so with no matches being played it would just be base salary they need to pay out

Latest from the EFL

‘The EFL Board met today to discuss the implications of the COVID-19 outbreak for the League and its Clubs.

After receiving a detailed brief on a number of matters, the Board reaffirmed that the health and well-being of EFL staff, players, Club employees and supporters would remain central to all decisions in these fast-changing circumstances.

The EFL Board also acknowledges the positive role that member Clubs are playing in community solidarity, especially in supporting the vulnerable at this time.

2019/20 SEASON SCHEDULE

The primary objective, in order to protect competition integrity, is to deliver a successful conclusion to the 2019/20 season, subject to the over-riding priority around health and well-being. Plans continue to be developed on the agreed principle that it is in the best interests of the EFL and Clubs to complete the current season at the appropriate time.

The EFL is continuing regular dialogue with the Government and relevant health authorities and, as and when more information is known regarding the scale and extent of the coronavirus outbreak in this country, a decision will be taken on the resumption of the League’s fixtures.

Conversations will continue with the EFL’s counterparts at the FA, the Premier League, the PFA and the LMA to ensure football achieves a joined-up and collaborative approach.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

As part of the League’s continued contingency planning, the Board heard the comments and observations from EFL Clubs, before discussing a number of issues including the current financial position and implications, insurance, regulatory matters and broadcasting arrangements.

Discussions centred on financial relief for Clubs in the short term and while there is no one single solution, measures are to be put in place to immediately assist with cash flow via a £50million short-term relief package.

This fund consists of the remaining Basic Award payments being advanced to Clubs immediately, with the remainder made up through interest-free loan facility available to Clubs, calculated in line with the EFL’s Article of Associations.

The cash injection is included as part of a series of measures, that includes potential Government support to help Clubs and their associated businesses through this period of uncertainty.  The EFL welcomes last night’s announcement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and is continuing discussions to understand how our Clubs can access the funding made available to support businesses.

In addition, we will continue our discussions with our football partners to determine how we can all get through this difficult, challenging and unprecedented situation.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

The EFL, through a dedicated taskforce, continues to review the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and its impact on our Clubs and competitions.

Alongside ensuring the 2019/20 season reaches a successful conclusion, protecting the EFL and its Clubs is a key priority for the EFL Board, who have today agreed on the following objectives to support future decision-making:

Ensure the health and well-being of our Clubs’ employees, supporters and communities
Make a positive contribution to the UK’s efforts to tackle coronavirus
Protect the EFL’s financial model and Club finances
Enable the EFL to continue to function as a business
Deliver a successful conclusion to the 2019/20 season’

Not STFC related but....

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/hearts-ask-players-and-staff-take-50-cent-wage-cut-due-coronavirus-2493718

Fair play that £50m could make a big difference to a lot of clubs. Suspect it's not quite enough still though, and again, would be nice to see the PL chucking in a few crumbs from down the back of their sofas. Could save L1 and L2 without breaking a sweat

On a brighter note

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51943721

(Not a criticism of Hearts I get that they operate in a completely different financial landscape)

Coronavirus: English football suspension extended until at least 30 April - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51962751

Dale Vince at his finest suggesting the EFL season could have been finished? I thought their season ended a while ago.

All L2 clubs to get £284,000 from the EFL

Or the FA...they are only ever good at ripping the wallets off fans.

So what happens.......  On a Saturday afternoon,  no footy, no pub....divorce cases are sure to rocket over the coming months !!!!.

Perhaps we will be drawn closer together.

Southern, Isthmian and Northern Leagues (feeders into the National League/Conference) have begun the process to terminate the season now. Up in the air how the season will be concluded and what happens with promotion/relegation etc

https://www.betvictorsouthern.co.uk/News/124013/League-Statement-Season-201920-#.XnpAJk4nehc.twitter

They can't void unless the whole pyramid does, otherwise what happens with those relegated from above?

From reading the statement, the pressing issue appears to be that they need to end the season due to financial pressure on clubs otherwise. And they're happy to go along with whatever the NL decide about how to conclude the season i.e. void if that's what the NL do, PPG if the NL do decide to complete the season in some way.

Sort of inevitable in the semi-professional leagues as unfortunate as it is.

PPG would be ideal for us if the football league eventually have to go down that route.

I know it’s the Daily Star but it looks like the National League are going to call time on the current season and promote Barrow and Harrogate to L2. So, if the EFL season doesn’t conclude they’ll be 26 teams in L2 next season.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/national-league-vote-immediately-end-21750382.amp?__twitter_impression=true

That's not in the National League's gift without the cooperation of the Football League. The National League can say "These are the top two and we think they should go up" but if the Football League doesn't conclude then the League could just say no promotion or relegation this season and keep it to the current 23 teams (or more likely accept the top one from the National League to make it up to 24). So even if the Star's report is accurate as to what the National League will decide (which is just speculation on their part), their conclusions are bollocks.

Surely the other clubs that have a chance of promotion will take legal action over that?

Probably. Although that's if they can afford it, a lot of NL clubs are going to be absoutely brassic, laying off staff etc already, not sure they're going to have money to throw around on legal challenges?

Well that's a very good point as well. Messy isn't it?

Forest Green put all their staff, including playing staff, on furlough, using the 80% wage scheme:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/forest-green-rovers-use-wage-3979490

Not sure if they're the first league club to do this, damn sure they won't be the last

Leeds players and staff voted for a wage deferral.
The government scheme is up to a max of £2500 a month so cant see many outside of league 2 and lower taking advantage of that.

Think I read Exeter have agreed to 50% wage cut, but may have that wrong. Barca in talks about 70% pay cut too.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/mar/25/barcelona-in-talks-to-cut-player-wages-by-up-to-70-during-coronavirus-lockdown
Might apply to quite a few L1 players as well, esp if the alternative is 50-75% cuts or even nothing. But you're right, can't see it being used in Championship and above, I was mainly thinking about L1/L2/Conference really

BREAKING: Germany's Champions League clubs, Borussia Dortmund, FC Bayern München, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen, have pledged a €20m financial package to support clubs in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 who are struggling because of coronavirus. 👏🏼🇩🇪 https://t.co/UI6qXDRTwA

From the Non League Paper:

BREAKING: Non-League Steps 3 to 6 have reached a consensus that the 2019/20 season will be ended with immediate effect and all results will be expunged.

This will mean that there will be no promotion or relegation of Clubs between Steps 3 to 6, or relegation from Step 2.

These decisions will also apply to the leagues and clubs at Step 7 of the National League System.

The FA will continue to assist and support the National League to determine the outcome of the 2019/20 season.

Step 2 is National league North/south

Step 1 is National league

For us there is either going to a repeat of 1989/90 and 30 years on denied promotion because of off the field matters.

Alternatively a little bit of retribution 30 years on and we could be promoted without concluding the season.

The other irony is 1989/90 was the last time Liverpool won the league.

Original FA statement is here (says the same, NLP have copied and pasted pretty much):

http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/mar/26/national-league-system-womens-football-pyramid-grassroots-covid-19-update-260320

Ooof, supermarine were 4th which I’m guessing would have been a play off place

As mentioned yesterday, it was inevitable for that level.

One or two teams playing catch-up because of cup runs and postponements is one thing but multiple levels all scrambling when players and staff have other commitments etc. was never going to happen.

Supermarine have indeed lost what would have been their highest finish. Expunged. Gone. A gutter for them.

EFL statement

Judging by that the EFL seem to want to finish the season, which is good. Things can change very quickly though.

Either sorted by ppg or complexity of nearest roundabout (Flashheart's idea, I think).

If they bin off the season how can we be sure any game we watch again will count.  That would be a terrible decision.

It would be a fucking scandal if they don't adopt it. (Or any other option that sees us promoted).

Apparently, several clubs in L1 and L2 want the season finished now as it’s financially better for them than hanging on until the season is restarted - if it ever is. Players will be OOC end of June so that will help some.

For those clubs who want to do that, let them - they then forfeit the points to the opposition for any unplayed games.

All this kicking the can down the road is doing no favours to anyone. Finish the season any way they can. If it’s as you were on league positions now, then it’s just tough shit for some clubs. Same for ppg. If it’s not sorted very quickly more clubs will fold.

Allowing a couple of teams to forfeit is still a farce if trying to complete the season and defies the whole point of finishing the season, doesn't it?

Also, awarding rollover points isn't fair to other sides and I imagine it would be more likely to see results expunged which means clubs losing as many as six points.

Not a good idea. It could seriously shift some postions around. Some teams that were at the top might miss out and others at the bottom might get an unfair reprieve at the cost of others. At least with PPG you get a reflection (albeit imperfect) of each team's performance overall.

I get that there’s no good way of sorting it out, but the point really isn’t about certain clubs may benefit or be disadvantaged by it. It’s about some clubs very survival.

For all we know we could be one of the clubs pushing for it - I doubt it, but how does Power finance the club with no money coming in and nobody really sure where his ‘other’ money comes from. Is it enough to keep the club afloat? Is it something he actually wants to do - if he can’t afford it, he can’t afford it?

Will we still pay Doyle £5k a week after June in case the season restarts? Ditto the others?

Is this from a trusted news media outlet?

Qs I have. Match tickets I have already bought: if I cannot go to the game & I decide to donate the ticket fee to STFC, how can I be sure that the club benefits rather than someone else?
If I want a refund on my Walsall away match ticket, will I be penalising STFC or saddling Walsall with the repayment?

Of course some midtable sides would be happy to season to finish now and start afresh in August, makes sense for them.  Allowing some teams to forfeit points is comfortably the worst idea I’ve heard for multiple reasons, would never happen

Not to mention teams who would have gone down! But no, forfeiting isn't the answer

Take a look at nearby Wantage Town, promoted to the Southern League Division One Central at start of 2019/20 season.
Playing record this season is P28 W1 D1 L26 GD-105(yes, minus 105) Pts4.
Season null and void as ratified by the FA.
https://www.betvictorsouthern.co.uk/league-table/BetVictor%20Southern%20Division%20One%20Central/2019/2020/P/ (https://www.betvictorsouthern.co.uk/league-table/BetVictor%20Southern%20Division%20One%20Central/2019/2020/P/)

Joint Football League/PFA proposal to defer 25% of player wages in L1 and L2:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52285552

Shit is hitting the fan.

‘Senior officials at several League One and League Two clubs have warned the EFL must take drastic action to prevent them going bust amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A growing number of League One and Two owners believe the 2019-2020 season should be cancelled’

Stupid question, but how does cancelling the season help financially?? Surely all contracts still have to be honoured?

I think its so that Prize money can be paid to clubs. I believe that's why Scottish lower league clubs are voting to end the season as is as some of them are very close to going to the wall.

Riggggght. Then surely you need some kind of final standings, rather than a complete right off of the season, to distribute the prize money

Well, yeah. But take Doyle, for example. He’s on, say, £20k per month until the end of June.

Does Power put him on a rolling one month contract but with no idea when this season will actually start.

End it now but with a conclusion of ups and downs. If there’s ever a vote on a proposal, we’re fucked. There’s far more clubs who will either benefit from voiding the season or it makes no difference to than those of us looking at promotion.

Agreed. Presume clubs don't really mean cancelling the season, more like stop as is? As you say, we need to know positions to be able to distribute prize money.

Hard to listen to this. He reckons every single L1 and L2 clubs have said there is no way they can get beyond May as things stand.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11973696/several-efl-clubs-days-away-from-going-bust

I think so. We will go same way as Scotland are looking like doing and start next season as soon is possible after August

Or the monies are just distributed equally to all clubs in the division.

The Scottish decision could help.  Not exactly a precedent that has to be followed, but it would certainly make it easier to follow suit.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dundee-vote-yes-spfl-proposal-18097487

PL demanding the season is finalised before 30 June before player contracts run out.

Ppg the season and be done with it.

Let’s not do it like Scotland, apparently Partick Thistle have been relegated despite having a game in hand that would take them out of the relegation zone if they won. Unsurprisingly they are already saying they will take legal action. Has to be PPG if going down the complete now route for this very reason.

Would be interesting to hear their rationale for not using PPG.  It would be a shame to miss out on the title, but I could live with 2nd place, to be honest.  Promotion is the main consideration for me.

All teams in a league should vote for where they think the other 23 would finish realistically.  that might work. any anomalies independently reviewed.

They could do that, just allow 'promotion' but not crown a champion.

Local league youth football have crowned anyone in first or runner up spot that can not be caught on points, but scrapped it for everyone else. At least that's how I read their gumf.

There have been calls for promotion but no relegation and have a season with more teams in each league.

But those escaping relegation would be huge winners - especially in the PL - unless they can massively reduce those clubs’ financial gain.

One presumes that to even be considered the existing members won't have their TV money diluted.

It would only be the prem who would end up with more teams. No chance they vote that to dilute their TV money

Well and Bolton and Southend. If Bolton weren’t to get relegated they’d effectively have escaped any punishment for the mess they were in, that can’t happen.

Reinstate the punishment next season.

Watching football is the main consideration for me. Would rather we resumed when it's safe and lost every game than go up in these circumstances.

weird! :)

The problem is you can't keep a squad together indefinitely. Once the limit of being able to do so is reached the whole thing becomes a farce fans or no fans.

Always been weird about this sort of stuff. I sort of don't care what division we're in, so long as I can get to some games and it's enjoyable when we're there, with positive fans and half-decent football. For example, I'd take this season over any of the last 2 or 3 in League One.

fair enough. not judging you. it's hard to argue this season hasn't been the most enjoyable in a long time.

I'm torn between wanting to take promotion now and wanting to continue what has been a very enoyable season. We can't be sure when the next one will come around.

Having said that, there's no guarantee this season will continue to be as much fun if it did continue. Rather a lot has changed since the last time we played.

Absolutely this.

I’ve gone from being desperate for the games to be finished and now desperate for the season to be finished - not voided, mind.

From an unselfish point of view, I really dont want any club to fold under these circumstances - even that lot up the road.

Kind of with you there but the standard in League 2 is fucking terrible. Much more likely to see a decent game in L1 than L2 (notwithstanding your actually quite reasonable point about the last two seasons we were there). Bottom line though, I just want a club to support. If that means canning the season now, can away say I

I only hope that one of these two scenarios actually transpire. I am becoming increasingly sceptical about this, as many L2 club owners are apparently saying they will not support playing the remaining games behind closed doors, due to associated costs and not even sure that players would agree, given health risks. If it is not feasible to finish the season before June 30th, I can not see it being finished at all due to players contract issues and clubs dire cashflow positions, with next to no income coming in. Then it comes down to option of season being declared null and void or promotions/relegations being awarded based on current positions or ppg and I believe that the null and void option would be chosen, due to majority vote. This would be the absolute nightmare for us and particularly gut wrenching bearing in mind our current league position.

I fear for the future of the majority of lower league football clubs, including ours, where I can see the 2020/21 season being played out behind closed doors, with much reduced playing staff on significantly reduced wages, possibly with many league clubs in administration or worse still.

The irony is that it has taken a pandemic virus to bring to a head the financial crisis that has existed for many years in football. The football bubble is finally bursting. You can not continue to pay out 100%+ of your income on player wages. The greed of the top 6 clubs in the Premiership, backed by wealthy foreign billionaires,  has gone unchecked and caused massive wage inflation throughout the pyramid. It is a disgrace, the football authorities are completely toothless and the PFA led by that grossly overpaid and irritating little shit Gordon Taylor are nothing short of an embarressment. The top Premier clubs need to be mandated now to donate a percentage of their wealth ( not by way of loans or advances on money due later) to support lower league clubs through this crisis and there then needs to be proper regulation in all leagues around player wages relative to a clubs income (do not allow owners loans to prop up) and stop this stupid rule which exists in the Championship around a club being allowed to lose several £m's per season, which only encourages gambling on a clubs future.

Unfortunately self interest is likely to prevail and for that reason I can only see the inequality in football growing, and the number of professional lower league teams diminishing. I hope I am wrong.

100% agree with every word of this. Absolutely spot on

You know that wouldn’t happen, same with Southend they are 20 points adrift how can they get a reprieve. It would be a complete joke if a 75% complete season was made to ‘never to have happened’ as fans and clubs alike have probably spent billions on this season.

I think we may have to face the fact that football as we know it is absolutely fucked.

Maybe a few PL clubs can operate with no attendance money, but those in the next 3 leagues can’t. Fans or, indeed, any large gatherings will continue to be banned until there is a vaccine.

How many clubs could survive that - no games until the 2021/22 season (with fans attending). Could clubs just lie dormant with no staff until then? But when it could start up again those clubs will have no money anyway to pay players or all the other associated costs.

Much the same as the thousands of ordinary businesses that will cease to exist.

This virus won't be around forever.

The problem is, though, that neither will a shedload of clubs.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/football-league-championship-return-behind-closed-doors-tv-stream-online-a9470056.html

No date yet, obviously, but at least something is confimed...

his statement

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/april/open-letter-to-supporters

Nothing in there about financial support for clubs.

Behind closed doors > expunging season.

There's nothing definitive in that statement*. Previously the EFL hoped to be back up and running in early April. Then late April. Now BCD... at some point, hopefully.

We will see.

*Open letter

there only thing the *open letter* does is sow the seeds in preparation for BCD, TV only football.

Wonder if it's simply an FA holding pattern , or whether there are ongoing talks with the government on a 'if we relax lockdown next time' basis.

we can only speculate.

god I'm bored

Behind closed doors seems most likely if lockdown ends up getting reduced gradually. Non-Essential office jobs / shops etc are lower risk than crowds at football games, pubs, gigs etc. So in the event lockdown gets reduced but not stopped completely for big events etc. The Behind Closed Doors becomes a good way of getting the season done.

Sorry that was a horribly written set of non-sentences. I hope it makes sense.

What happens if these games get shunted past 30 June when OOC players and loanees may have left?

We’ll end up playing the last 10 games with youths and whatever under contract pros we have left. How can that be representative of the previous games that got us top of the league?

Those middle for diddle clubs with no interest in play offs or relegation would have let as many players go as possible to save money - quite understandably.

The PL money, which is not new money only next season’s solidarity money brought forward, would be wasted on a host meaningless games.

How would behind closed doors work? Presumably, clubs would still play at their home grounds otherwise that risks the integrity of having home and away fixtures for 3/4 of the season and not finishing that way.

There were some noises about playing games at places like St George's Park. Surely, you would want to play or your own pitch and have some advantage although our wind tunnel would be diminished in June.

The iFollow idea is interesting but if you were a season ticket holder should you have to pay again for live streaming of home games?

Personally, I hand over my season ticket money and it's the clubs. I wouldn't ask for a refund for the remaining games but paying for a live stream seems unfair. I notice throughout the debate about loss of tv revenue that Sky aren't dropping their prices, you can cancel but lose any deals.

they'd surely bung Ifollow free to ST holders for home games

I would imagine clubs would be able to exteend player contracts month by month

But most clubs don’t want to extend players’s contracts - they want them off the payroll ASAP.

What’s the point in, say, Scunthorpe, retaining players for matches that are meaningless for them.

It’s probably great for us as we play loads of those sort of teams in the 10 games left.

But what if Doyle says, no thanks, and Grant. And all the loan players are recalled.

FIFA have already said this is what will happen haven't they? I realise FIFA permitting it and clubs doing it is a different matter, but at least it can happen within the framework of registrations etc.

There's going to be all kinds of problems like this. It's not going to be perfect. There is no perfect solution. It's just a case of trying to find the least worst compromise.

I’d imagine we’d be able to easily find enough players in the current squad willing to play so wouldn’t be an issue. Like you say though with the majority of teams we play having nothing to play for there’s a big possibility we are going to mainly be playing youth players which other clubs won’t be happy about but it’s the best of a bad bunch of options.

I'd be happy with that,  just need an injection of football,  depression setting in,  didn't realise how much Saturday afternoon's with the boys really meant,  get  this done and look forward to League 1 next season.

Im not sure mate, must have missed that. In that case, as you were

Yes they have.

yeah they did, but I can't see it being the club's choice. if the player wants to go then they'll go. the legal ramifications if it's an enforced extension could be huge.

that said, can another club afford to pay them at the moment...

still at least we only have most of our key players out of contract...oh bugger

We are glad to see the back of ya!

Well it works both ways - clubs won't be under any obligation to extend contracts either if they don't want to. All the FIFA ruling does IIRC is *allow* for contract to be rolled over until end of season (whenever that is) in terms of registration, which might otherwise have got messy with international clearances etc. But it still requires the consent of both parties to the contract

Until there is a definitive start date - not the fluffy ‘hopefully’, or ‘aiming for’ dates - it’s a non starter.

If the EFL are determined to get this season finished they have to give a date whereby they concede it cannot be finished. How can Power commit £20k a month for Doyle et al with no definitive start date. What if it’s September - that’s £40k down the pan for just one player.

No ticket money coming in, Imagine Cruising sponsorship must have gone up in smoke too.

Fuck knows where this leaves the CG purchase.

Was referring to the boys, not pensioners corner.

The club did manage to get the first phase of season ticket renewals through before football closed down but it wouldn't take long to burn through that money with no other income coming in.

I assume the ground purchase was fairly advanced given the announcements but until contracts are signed it can all go awry.

not disputing that.

to expand/clarify my point, the season isn't really the same season if it continues with different squads - FIFA ruling or not. The integrity of the league will already be blown.

it's why I still think the league needs done by June 30th +- a couple of weeks goodwill from players and clubs (well +, cause it ain't going to be -)

Ah, yes I see, yes that's a given I think

Afternoon,

Trying to get a decent amount of voters for 10 questions I've posed for an upcoming episode. Would appreciate any Twitter users who haven't contributed to please spend a minute or two answers them.

Cheers.

https://twitter.com/LoathedStranger

Done

Survey done

Just noticed this on Twitter about a discussion by Lge 2 clubs tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/thesunfootball/status/1251979086702030850?s=21

Seems like it’s happening. Either finished as the standings are presently, or ppg. 3 game play offs BCD. If the situation is as dire as some clubs say in L2 there shouldn’t be too much bleating. Stevenage couldn’t complain. In fact, no club should complain if the alternative is hanging on indefinitely and then going bust.

Looks as if each league could decide differently - but as long as the promotion/relegation slots are finalised I suppose that doesn’t really matter.

Now saying pubs could be closed until Christmas,  surely if that's the case then football would follow as all areas of hospitality are said to be the last that will reopen..................  Shit !!!!!!!!!!!.

I've only seen the Sun saying the pubs will be closed until Christmas (might be wrong). Think the government said that hospitality would be the last thing to come out lockdown - which to be honest has seemed pretty obvious for a while.

That's a pretty odious Sun front page all round really. PUBS SHUT TILL CHRISTMAS. (596 dead in small cartoon virus, see page 4).

Only of secondary interest, I know.  But if Points per Game (PPG) was adopted by League 1, Wycombe (in 8th!) would go up - and not Oxford (in 3rd).  Which would be quite funny, if I'm honest.

You have L2 fever. Only 2 go up auto in L1. So Oxford would still be in the PO's where they are now

Yeah that's right. Presumably Wycombe would jump above Posh into the play-offs.

Happy to be corrected, but thought I read that there would be no play offs - and three from League 1 going straight up.  Similarly, Cheltenham (in 4th) would go up in League 2.

I haven't seen that anywhere. I didnt think they had met yet?

It was one of the proposals, don't think anything has been agreed yet

If you do away with the play-off promotion spot and the related relegation spot almost all controversy goes away and if the play-offs aren’t happening then the promotion spot shouldn’t exist.

Seems common sense to me:
Only Southend and Bolton would be relegated in league 1 who are 15+ points adrift, Tranmere who have a game in hand that if they won would climb out of the relegation zone would stay up.
Similarly in the Championship Luton and Barnsley are 6+ points adrift would go down with Charlton who are only 2 points adrift staying up.

Finish the season with PPG and it’s the best that can be done, some will still moan but it’s not that controversial IMO.

The PL relegation/Championship promotion will be a different matter altogether.

Job done! theakston for Chairman of the Football League :)

theakston's plan makes sense, therefore eliminating him  from the job

Ah, good point. Sensible, workable solutions are not suitable for football. You need to come up with something jaw-droppingly stupid that will somehow result in even more wealth being transferred to the top 6-9 clubs in the Premier League, theakston

And Swindon with a game in hand over Crewe would go up as champions !!.

I'm almost at a point of wondering whether any of it is worth it - I can't see them opening up stadiums this year, so everything will be behind closed doors and a bit weird.

I heard on the radio today Swindon Town are in talks with other league 2 clubs to finish the season early but did not say what the conclusion would be

As I've said before, I can see this season being declared null and void - God forbid!! I really dont see any other solution being accepted by enough clubs.

I fear you may be right.

PPG or current standings will be accepted by just as many if not more clubs depending on which gets asked first. The clubs in mid-table with nothing to play for won’t give a toss as long as the season is declared finished. The teams in the promotion places will object to null & void and the teams just outside the Auto’s/play-offs will object to both null & void and PPG.

There won't be any common sense and it's hard to get a right answer apart from "finish the season"

Even speaking as a neutral, it would be so harsh on the teams up the top to not give them what they deserve.

I would..

Promote Barrow & Harrogate from the National League
Relegate Stevenage in L2. Promote us, Crewe & Plymouth.
Relegate Bolton & Southend from League One, they're too far gone. Promote Coventry & Rotherham from League One. Gives L1 & L2 24 teams each
Relegate Barnsley & Luton from the Championship. Promote Leeds & West Brom.
Don't relegate anyone from the Premier League, have both Premier League & Championship on 22 teams and adjust it with promotions / relegations the season after.

PL won't want to go to 22 teams

There is not enough  room in the calendar with European dates to fit in a 22 team PL.

The issue for most teams in L1 and L2 is that waiting to finish the season - extending player contracts beyond 30 June with no income and no certainty about when games can restart - is too expensive hence the urgency of finding a solution. PPG is the fairest way of doing this unless they can work out something only a little more complicated - weighting PPG for the mix of home and away games left to play could be done quickly and easily explained.

No doubt some statisticians could use the expected goal data to develop a football equivalent of Duckworth Lewis and use that to calculate a points total for each club  for the remaining games, but that would cause so much argument that it wouldn’t be accepted even if it can be done in the time available.

I agree.  As soon as you introduce subjective judgement in to the equation (as would be the case there) you open yourself up to challenge.  So it's a bit of a non-starter.  Voiding sets a really difficult precedent, so I'm starting to feel a bit more confident that PPG will be seen as the least worst option.

But you say that from the perspective of supporting a team which will benefit from any outcome other than voiding the season.

let's hope tomorrow brings a favourable hint at what's what

Some rumour sites speculating Bundesliga could resume BCD on May 9th

I think they should randomise the Premier and Football leagues. We've got just under a 3/4 chance of finishing higher than we are. 1/92 of winning the premier league, and a sexy 2/47 of Champions League football next year.

True. But promoting teams from L2 has absolutely no detrimental bearing financially on the other club’s - apart, maybe, from the 1 out of the present top 5 to miss out.

Fucking every club over to appease those who have done jack shit all season is just wrong.

It’s just schadenfreude.

I suppose the trouble is that you need to know what the rules are before the season starts. 

It's a poor example but with a one day cricket match, the teams know how the match will be determined if it cannot be completed.  Here, there are no pre existing rules on what happens if the season cannot be completed. 

We face the prospect of trying to fashion a mechanism for determining the outcome long after the season commenced.  It's clear that this will be a fertile ground for litigation.

The ministers for certain regions discussed it today, sounds like a strong possibility that the 1st & 2nd Bundesliga might begin then under strict criteria

I do, but the argument against voiding is not connected to that.  In short, void a season that's 80% complete would rightly allow supporters in future to question the validity of the League games they were watching.  You really don't want to open that Pandora's Box.  You'd probably be able to make a stronger case for voiding if the outbreak happened in the Autumn with only 25% of the games played - but not this late in the season.

Thanks, yes - I acknowledge that.  I don't know what the permutations are but presumably a number of clubs could assert that a lot could still happen in the remaining 20 percent of the season - particularly those on the fringes of promotion/relegation. 

Finding a formula that provides certainty and satisfies everyone may be difficult.  Treating the season as void may be regarded as bad for all (and I do not advocate this) but this provides certainty.

Of course, any questions around the validity/integrity of the sport in general should be looked at through the prism of these 'unprecedented times'.  Things as we know it have changed substantially and this could last for some time yet.  Losing a season may be seen as merely a small part of all this.

What actually offers more in the way of keeping the league’s integrity.

Forcing the remaining games to be played BCD with a whole host of clubs fielding teams that bear no resemblance to the sides they put out in the first 36 games

Or

Bringing the league to a conclusion now and awarding league positions to allow for a fresh start to the new season.

If they keep dithering there will be clubs going to the wall and the leagues will be different for sure.

Other than pure spite I can't see why the going nowhere clubs would care less whether the remainder of the season is concluded using ppg.

BCD or PPG are the only viable options IMO.

ditto.

and BCD has an ever decreasing window

Massive cans of worms about to be opened it would seem, with so many repercussions to be felt throughout football whichever path they take.

Yes, there aren't any non-controversial options. Someone will miss out, or feel that they have, whatever the authorities decide on. Got to be decided on the basis of what is the best way of keeping clubs in business, that has to be the first and main consideration, then what is the best option for the majority of clubs.

So PPG, we go up as Champions, Man City relegated to L2 due to FFP violations, we take their Champions League place.

Firstly, all the teams in L2 have to agree I assume on a number of different options, as there clearly in any event winners and losers. Then those options are voted on, in a similar way to proportionate representation until a clear option is left standing as the way to go.

Unfortunately, I think the BCD debate regarding finishing this season rather misses the point.

If clubs are feeling the pinch now, what will happen if fans arent allowed back in for 6, 9 or 12 months. No income for an extended period of time will sound the death knell for many clubs - even those who presently think their owner will support them. In the short term many owners will - for an extended period it seems unlikely.

Brings up a constitutional point..

What is the majority needed to reach agreement when the vote comes? Unanimous?
80%?
undefined in rules?

Can of worms.

(https://i.postimg.cc/TwPnGZZY/94212803-282418856083749-9118237632654999552-n.jpg)

McAnthony is a well known self obsessed bullshitter. It’s got fuck all to do with him if clubs decide to call it a day on this season. The EFL may take some sort of action - unlikely - but he’s got no sway whatsoever in any sanction on clubs.

The key bit in MacAnthony's message, especially the final sentence, is 'IMO'.

Of course, people now take it as 100% and run with it.

Also amazes me that people don't think that L2 clubs haven't been in regular contact throughout all this.

I don't think anybody will take HIS word for this 100%, he is an idiot and likes the sound of his own voice, I was just sharing what he posted, I personally don't think it has much relevance to anything, but he is not alone in the football world in having this view.

There are also just as many that think hes well wide of the mark too.

We won't find anything out in the short term, I expect this to drag on for weeks yet.

Walked past the County Ground earlier. There is lots going on with the pitch, the sort of stuff you see in the off-season. Huge pile of raked out dead grass has come out. Massive pile of sand going in. Machinery on the pitch.

No idea what this means though, if anything.

Getting the pitch ready for a prolonged period without any use I suspect.

Cassidy said the other day that he was ‘sorting out the CG’ so guess they are doing the off season renovations early, seems a few clubs are doing the same. A positive sign though as if we are spending money on the pitch it would suggest we are ok financially as it wasn’t exactly a ploughed field like some other clubs pitches.

Especially when you think of the rain we had this last winter. More like a paddy field but looked superb considering.

The players have been told to expect to return to training in mid May.....

For June the 6th restart...

Have we, are we, furloughing players and staff?

Stadium staff have been done, players are still being paid.

Thanks. According to the BBC then, we are one of a very small number of clubs in L1 and 2 not doing so.

If it all goes wrong, it will be Lee Powers fault.

I know people at the club and yes we are furloughing staff for certain. No idea about players though as thats not common knowledge, unlike the normal employees who freely admit that.

Danny Rose was on the totally football league podcast with Sam Parkin the other day. Said the players had been furloughed but were being topped up by the club.

He also said the players would probably take a wage deferral if they were guaranteed to get it back.

This has changed from what the club said the other week then.
Makes sense though, no problem with it at all.

If wer're topping up the player's wages, would that not suggest we are not desperate for money?

You’d think so.

I really am wondering what the footballing landscape will look like when the dust has settled.

Wellens on Talksport now

what did he say? nothing interesting I assume

Not much really, aiming for may 16th to start training, players furloughed but being topped up, getting bored at home and didnt realise how soothing a jet washer is. Doesnt know what is going to happen regarding the season, can only take it as it is at the moment

Cheers

Apparently the players are not happy at Oldham, rumoured to be the big team in L2 flirting with admin.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tTGPM95m/Untitled.jpg)

They won't be the only ones. Non league clubs are already starting to go under

Southend have announced similar too.

‘A majority grp of Lge 1&2 clubs have written to the EFL saying they want the season finished by July 31 latest. They also want salary caps from next season to ensure 'long-term future of all EFL Clubs'. Also, players out of contract wont be offered extra pay to finish season.’

Moon on a stick?

Nationl league have cancelled all remaining games :( .

https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/national-league-statement-remaining-league-matches-61884

yes, but not decided how to end this season yet

Dunno mate, the headline says they voided the season. Then contradict themselves at the end.

Starting to think we are going to see a return to Div 3 north and south (Or league one north and south). Some suggestion in the papers today that clubs in L1 and 2 are keen on it.

It also effectively solves the issue of promotion and relegation between league 1 and 2 although you still have the same issue between L1 and championship and between L2 and national league

If Cheltenham end up in the north division then that's fine.
Other than that, not keen on the idea, unless maybe as a temp solution for a couple of seasons until clubs find their feet again.

It was a statement not a fact :)

They have said they aren't playing any more games this season, but

I hate the idea, only top going up and then play-offs between N&S for the last spot which would result in only the top 3 places worth playing for. Relegation being equally boring, 1 down from each league. Fuck that.  You'd have to have 6 down from Championship to make it interesting.

^^^^ yup

plus the ballache that comes with Oxford Derby Day. Though the risk is that match becomes as mundane as all the others.

not sure I could commit to a regionalised League in ST terms. would just go occasionally*

* obviously i probably would, then blame the kids

Completely.  There are some advantages, but plenty of disadvantages as well.  And that one's a biggie.  They abandoned Div 3 North & Div 3 South in 1958 for a reason.  There are plenty of sides - and we could well be among them - that would end up marooned in these divisions forever.

Division 3 south.....

Coventry
Oxford
Portsmouth
Wycombe
Ipswich
Gillingham
Bristol
Franchise
Wimbledon
Southend
Swindon
Plymouth
Exeter
Cheltenham
Colchester
Northampton
Fgr
Newport
Orient
Stevenage
Crawley
Plus 2 of Walsall burton Cambridge or Peterborough

I think that would be me largely done with football, promotion would become next to impossible for us and most seasons you’d effectively have nothing to play for post Christmas so crowds will plummet. Solves absolutely nothing as trips to Ipswich, Colchester, Southend, Crawley and Plymouth aren’t exactly short journeys.

So no major reduction in mileage and likely lower crowds/interest, tell me what are the benefits exactly?

Have done zero research, but on sight are most of the southern teams near the top of their division? Meaning the south division would be ‘harder’?

Th National League will probably be communicating with the EFL now to see how many/if any of their members are going to be able to move up. Barrow and Harrogate fans must be sweating.

The EFL will probably wait and see how many clubs make it through this before deciding on making any structural changes to the Football pyramid.

If anything, I think the leagues would stay in the same format but with perhaps less clubs if a certain amount fold (instead of replacing them National League sides).

Depressing list if you get stuck there forever.

I think looking at that we’d be pushing the play offs most years

The current proposal is just 2 up, 2 down in each league. No relegation from the premier league. We'd obviously gladly take that.

RE: Regionalisation - It's certainly not a hill I'm willing to die on but I have been on the record several times over and maintain that I really don't think there's much of a difference and fans would get used to it (in the same way as we get used to L2). I don't even think ticket sales wouldn't be hit *that* badly if at all.

But these opinions don't mean that I want it to be re-introduced <---- Emphasis on this.

I fully understand the downsides. Extra costs for policing and the National League North/South is a ball ache geographically. FGR or Cheltenham could play in the North for a year if it's drawn the same way as the National League for example and then return to the South at the whim of the EFL to accomodate new teams to the division.

That would be farcical and defeating any point of brining it back.

Has the idea of regionalisation actually been discussed amongst those who matter? I assume not

No. But, discussion wise, it's not exactly out of place within a thread about what happens next.

Oh yeah totally agree, just wondered if i had missed any rumours or anything

Fuck that, nothing but a lottery plus bollcks to Wembley too.

Ditto.

I've heard national journalists on a few podcasts mention it as a possible solution for the future. Not surprising that most were in favour.

 :D

How about east & west regionalisation?

Use the existing M5 & M6 motorways and the west coast rail route for the main transport arteries for one, and the M1 & east coast rail route for the other.

discouraging group think since 2020

Just shut football down until it’s safe to start again with fans. How many clubs will be left by then I have no idea.

We could be in the Championship!

Not sure that would achieve much.  You'd still have Plymouth vs Carlisle and Sunderland vs Gillingham.

🤔A new twist in the 'how do we finish the football season' poser 💡
A Scottish junior league has decided on a method, and the third placed team is deemed to have won the league !
They averaged out the points per home game, and the away games separately, and then allocated this figure to the remaining home and away games to give a season average Total.

Seems the fairest way I can think of IF the decision is to end the season now and not play the remaining games. It would save a lot of the lower league teams from possible bankruptcy, as playing behind closed doors would cost them a fortune !

🤔Thoughts ? 🤔

Harrogate have a plastic pitch so would have to get rid of that to be allowed in the League

How would that work for us if you worked it out?

We’d finish just over 2 points clear, 18.5 points to Crewe’s 16.3 I think.

You trollin' ?

Nation League from Oliver Holt

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52394133

I don't like the idea of region as then you would potentially end up with lower crowds, some clubs would miss out on a visit from the 'bigger' teams and the crowds that would bring in.

The latest by the seems of it is the Mansfield chairman asking the FL to look at a wage cap for L1 & L2, surely it should be up to clubs to manage their own budgets, yes you get the likes of Mansfield and FGR trying to throw money at promotion but the other clubs in trouble is not because they have overspent on wages.

If there was a wage cap in place then it would stop clubs who want and are willing to pay that little bit more for a player that may stop them going down or help to get them promoted.

This type of thing sadly makes the championship and premier just a pipe dream, if clubs got there in future they would have no chance of competing as they was subject to a wage cap previous and that sort of cap would probably be nowhere near what you would need for players at that sort of level, and then again when / if they got relegated what happens.

I don't think anything can be decided though until it is known how this season will play out and when crowds will be allowed to return to football, no fans surely means less sponsorship and less advertising revenue.

THe FL need to decide how they will support football for the forseeable future.

It's not just the Mansfield chairman, it's 37 of the 47 clubs in Leagues One and 2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52398548

Sorry but that's baldy flawed reasoning. For one thing, it would depend on where the wage cap was set and even if it was set at a level that meant some of their current squad weren't likely to be able to compete, then clubs would need to build a new squad, retaining some of their current players but losing those they didn't think would compete at the level above. You know, like they do now.

Without a wage cap, many more clubs are going to go to the wall. The only thing wrong with this proposal is that it doesn't include the Championship where the problem of excessive wages is much worse.

I'm all for a wage cap of sorts. If anything good comes about becasue of this virus - a wage cap might be one of them.

Ideally it should look something like this

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQHQBWyocrktu6FgzIQdGQQ1PbBWSRE6NLTJ3ZTVMSkQK7e6MLM&usqp=CAU)

No, that's only if the leagues are regionalised and that's the D3 north wage cap.

Wage caps will need to linked to turnover though surely. If you get someone like Forest or Leeds in the league with 30k crowds that have the turnover to pay more then they shouldn’t be restricted by the same cap as say Ecotricity FC.
The alternative is the cap gets set at some arbitrary figure like £10k per week and then it becomes pointless as any team spending that at this level currently is likely spending beyond their means.

Enforcing FFP and removing the equity doping loopholes sounds a better idea.

Time for transparent financials to be presented to an independent auditor every season. Wage caps based on a % of turnover and certain ‘financial doping methods’ specifically outlawed.

All backed up with an automatic points deduction with no appeal.

Why should footballers' earnings be capped? They're privately owned businesses and should be able to pay their employees whatever they want.

We already have a total wage cap in L2 as a % of turnover. That should be extended to the rest of the EFL, but you can't cap individuals' earnings.

Yeah that would do it. That's still a wage cap, doesn't have to be on an individual basis, And it definitely needs extending to the Championship as that is where the problem is worse- avg spend of £1.07 per £1 of income on wages alone. That's before they spend on anything else. And some clubs well over that

So, after yesterday’s call for a wage cap by Dale Vince and then again today by John Radford, we have 2 clubs who have consistently spunked large wages on their players.

Probably seeing their advantage disappear and want to try and remain competitive by dumbing every club down.

It has always puzzled me how the USA, bastions of free market policies, have restricted all of their sports to a "Socialist" model of revenue sharing, drafts, total salary caps etc.  Generally speaking, they strong arm the local councils into paying for new stadiums as well.

I think the system in place for L1 & L2 would work well, if it was properly managed and enforced by the FL.  I think, while there is an argument about each club being a private business, they choose to operate in a membership based organisation.  As such, it is not like competing in an open market, so having rules of fairness are fine.  The members are expected to act in the overall good of the wider community.  Each club can earn turnover in many free market ways, so the restrictions are solely about the competing in the league aspect, players are not the only employees of the business after all.

The idea is to keep things competitive and therefore increase the value.  More chance of your team winning, more you'll watch and spend.

It sounds... plastic.

We need to get back to splashing through everyone’s piss in the bogs, just bovril and a bag of cheese and onion available at half time, players with no names on their shirt back and sponsors Freddy Fuckwit on the front.

Brown envelopes should be rife and at least half the team should be pissed on the pitch.

Sunday League   :)

We need Indoor League   :D
Love the Leeds cardy  :)

https://youtu.be/SaVV3Rg4XvM

It works

How many teams do they have in comparison? What about teams in the same town or city? You’d have to go down to a point in the pyramid where you’ll effectively tell teams you can’t get promoted anymore and are just playing for ‘fun’ making say National League downwards nothing more than glorified Sunday league. Would absolutely destroy the traditional football model in this country so it’s a no thanks from me.

I assume from this that you have not objected to, or made any negative comment on, the manner in which STFC is run by the owner (s)  of what is a privately owned business.

If you read the article on the BBC site, you'll see that Radford sent the letter on behalf of 37 of the 47 L1 and L2 clubs, so it's very far from just these two

I guess it depends whether the wage cap would be an absolute value.

problem with % revenue is  it's being abused by inflated 'sponsorship' deals.

I'm not a fan of capping wages, but football needs to change, and it doesn't look like that's ever going to happen organically.

As Audrey said on the previous page, it would need to be accompanied by much greater financial transparency and strict clampdown on financial doping, especially some of the loopholes like selling your own stadium back to yourself.

Really good, transparent and logical statement from the Plymouth owner

https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/2020/april/chairmans-chat/

Keen for PPG isnt he

But he’s right though, isn’t he. There are fans from a lot of clubs who are convinced their wealthy owner is going to carry on funding their club for as long as it takes. Noticeable that the Argyle owner says he is willing to bridge the gap ‘in the short term’, I.e. until the end of June.

What happens after that? Lots of clubs with owners unable to fund their clubs til then I reckon.

I can complain about football and a club like I can complain about anything else.

The point is footballers are just employees. It's wrong to cap how much someone can earn.

Interesting stuff on league restructuring. He seems to be suggesting that the National League at least (and possibly the leagues below in the pyramid) all be brought into the Football League to remove the stigma around "dropping out of the League", especially in a time when most National League sides are full time anyway. And, post-Covid, it's not unthinkable that some Football League sides might end up having to go semi-pro

But a %age of revenue wage cap on the club which you were in favour of (rightly IMO) would also cap how much someone could earn, albeit relative to a club's revenue. It's still a cap.

It wouldn't cap how much someone can earn (within reason). It's a cap on how a club, as members of a league that they help regulate, can spend their money. If they wanted to pay one player 80% of the cap, that's their shout.

Listening to the Richie Wellens interview on Talksport then it sounds like much will happen in the next couple of weeks. He played down the financial situation with the advance of the EFL/PL money.

EFL has set a May 18th date for resuming training for a June 6th restart. If that training date gets pushed back then they start running out of weeks to finish the season.

Completely agree.  I've been thinking just the same thing.  And this, from the country that rejects the concept of universal healthcare because it's 'socialist'.  'We'll allow the evening up of club finances and player recruitment because it makes things fairer.  But guarantee a minimum level of health provision to everyone in society?!  Fuck off!!'  It's a bit strange.

Yes, so that acts as cap on that player doesn't it. I get it's more  of a sliding scale, but it's still a ceiling on how much someone can earn. Which was your objection. Whereas it seems what you actually object to is a fixed ceiling that applies across the board?

There's been a strong argument for rebranding the National League/Conference as League 3 for some time.

I think most of the clubs are full time down there now so not sure what the distinction really is any more ?

The Plymouth guy seemed to be going further, the suggestion seemed to be to include National Leagues North and South too. Which makes sense because they are one league, just with two regionalised lower divisions. As horlock says, most of the NL is full time anyway, although I doubt that much of NLN and NLS are.

Why the obsession with a South/North anything in this country? How about a West/East set up?

Saw this as a good idea if games actually go to iFollow only.

Whatever game is streamed only have access to the home club’s stream. That way, at least the home club would benefit from away fans watching - just as they would if they were actually attending and paying gate money.

Wild guess, the shape of the country?

Yeah that makes sense.

Regionalised football is shit full stop but it doesn’t take much looking at a map to see the distances involved in an east/west League would be significantly higher.

But the transport links are much better north/south.

Hence HS2 plans to reunite the north via east to west, but in the future.

Plymouth to Colchester is a horrible journey.

Perceptions of east/West distances on maps are skewed anyway.

Well with all our players and staff on furlough,as I guess most teams will be, only got to find the 20% of their wages, season ticket sales should cover that.

 :)

It will be more than that, it's 80% up to a max of £2500 per month. So if you have a player on £2k a week, the club's going to be paying around 6.5k per month to cover the shortfall

Nonsense. Sennen in Cornwall to Cromer is 404 miles. Brighton to Berwick is 392 miles  ;)

For anyone on here who believes the earth is not flat, putting part of a "globe" onto a flat surface causes distortion. Check out the USA v Africa comparison & the hoo-haa that causes.

For example:
The Greenwich Meridian goes through Cleethorpes, and Edinburgh is west of Liverpool.

Are you talking about the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a (almost) sphere? Maybe we could get round (under) that by building a network of direct tunnels between the relevent clubs would be a good nationwide project to kick start the economy post-virus? How big is the UK vs. the curvature of the earth anyway? If you dug a tunnel direct from say Swindon to Carlisle, how deep would it be at the midpoint? All important questions.

Wormholes are the answer

When you fly, you travel in time ever so slightly.

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/exclusive-date-when-sunderland-fans-will-be-able-return-stadium-light-2548904

The UK is quite big, see at the start of this....

https://youtu.be/tQWPR9TM0Gk

I did say it was a wild guess  :)

One hell of a scoop for a local rag if it's true.

Having worked on HS2 and knowing the route that’s not really true. If you were in the ‘west’ league HS2 would be of almost no benefit to you and even then it only really benefits if you are going to big cities for games.  It’s London to Birmingham then Birmingham to Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. The north western links into places like Liverpool will be done by NPR. You are looking at 2040 before anything goes beyond Birmingham in terms of operations so it’s irrelevant anyway. Now that GWEP is complete and Crossrail soon to open the south at least will have a fairly decent network connecting most areas so again North/South is the only ‘sensible’ option if they want to go down the regional route.
Also East/West would still have all the longest journeys like Plymouth/Exeter to Carlisle etc so doing nothing at all would make more sense than this.

If that is true why not just delay the season until October 1st and finish say in June. I see no point in starting the season behind closed doors for the sake of a month and a half.

If that happens, because it's safe to do so, that will be great news for the country as a whole.  Personally I'll be amazed if mass gatherings at sporting events happen before a vaccine or effective treatment is established.

Agreed. We'll see.

Absolutely. Although the story itself seems a bit optimistic to say the least, given Chris Whitty was saying only yesterday that some form of social distancing would need to stay in place for the rest of this year, can't see several thousand people turning up at a stadium fitting in with that.

It’s beginning to boil my piss. Why do both the PL and the EFL keep coming up with arbitrary dates when footballing ‘things’ may happen. They’ve got fuck all to base this on and just seems like a wish list of dates plucked out of thin air.

All that’s happening is clubs are kept dangling because there’s too much baggage attached to actually growing some balls and finishing this season now and saying the next will start only when the government says it can do with fans present.

All this shit about BCD is pure bollocks. No club in the nether regions of league football can operate with no Matchday income. End of.

agree delay start if it fans were allowed in come October.

that article though reads to me like it means that's the earliest date currently under consideration.. well I suppose it has to be given the current situation

Yikes! The Dutch have just binned-off their top division’s season.  Hope it's not catching:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52418048

:(

totally voided. shit

Very different set up to here though with a lot less depth and money involved, 4 or 5 B teams in their second division and about half of the teams in the top 2 leagues having smaller attendances than us so much easier to void financially .

Dismissed the Macclesfield fixture Outlook reminder this afternoon.  :cry:

Glass half full, so still hopeful that the L2 trophy can somehow make its way into the town centre on the top deck of an empty no 17 bus.

If season doesnt finish looks like Stevenage get a reprieve

That's a wishful Notts County fan with the first reply

I'm struggling to decipher what he said.

Is he trying to say they should be promoted according to standings from last season?

Yup. Sound logic on his part... *coughs*

Indeed, it is difficult to make a logical argument against re instating to elf

Tell you this much, if, if we get to play the season to it’s end the pitches are going to favour us for a start. I also wonder though I’m doubtful, would a certain Dion Conroy be fit enough to take some part in proceedings?

In the loathed strangers interview Wellens said that we would have a clean bill of health for all our players but they would be very careful with Conroy bearing in mind he is coming back from horrible injuries. I guess he would be re-introduced into the side very gently.

Sub. If needed.

Conroy said the same when he was podded a few weeks back, he was doubtful he would be reintroduced this season, even if the end of the season was in July, be more likely to wait until next season to be on safe side

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11978188/football-manager-2020-predicts-final-sky-bet-league-two-table

I'll take that. Come on EFL, you know it makes sense.

I agree, do it EFL, make it happen! :D

Agreed

Championeeesss

calls for a beer

Are we all out on the p*** this evening celebrating!!

Yep.

well this is shite, 8-team tournament, how's that more fair:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11978805/coronavirus-leagues-one-and-two-considering-contingency-plans-if-season-cannot-be-finished

That's a fucking atrocious idea.

Look further down the list at the 5 best goals, and a couple of more beers in order

I agree absolutely shite for the top three teams neither would it make sense as you would still have to play a similar amount of games that currently remain

Eerrrrr, no. We’re in on the piss celebrating. 🍺🏆🏅

I don't mind staying in if we're all getting pissed🍺🍺🍺⚽️⚽️🍺🍺

Cheers 🍺🍷🥃🍺🍷🥃🍺🍷🥃

let's have a session 🍺🍺🍺🍾🍾🍻🍻🍻🥃🥃🥃🥂🥂🥂🍹🍹🍹🍸🍸🥃🥃🥃🥃🍺🍺🍺🍷🍷🍷🍾🍾🍾🥃🍹🍺🍺

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11978805/coronavirus-leagues-one-and-two-considering-contingency-plans-if-season-cannot-be-finished

Fuck that, we’d lose to Cheltenham in the first round

The thing I would (obviously) favour is:

League 1:
Top 1 goes up (There is clear blue water until 2nd) and next 7 play off for the last place. A bye is given to Rotherham for finishing in 2nd (and 2 points above the next 3).

League 2:
Top 3 go up (Clear blue water again) and the next 6 play off for the final place. Chelters and Exeter get byes in first round as there was clear blue water between them and the next lot. Alternatively, just play off between Chelters and Exeter for the last place due to the large gap to next place.

Fucking hell, who came up witht that idea?

My guess is that tree hugger Dale Vince or that twat Gary Neville

They can get in the bin with that. That's the worst idea yet. Either play out the remaining games behind closed doors or award average PPG and finish it that way. And give us Man City's place in the Champions' League.

It's an idea. Don't see what the problem is with that. What would all the groaners want, a void? Start thinking non normal.

It's a ridiculous idea and is high risk for teams like us, Crewe, Plymouth or Coventry in League One. You dominate for 36/37 out of 46 games to avoid the play offs and then go into these?

We have also played most of the top 8 over twice and picked up crucial results. Doesn't seem right to then replay those games as play offs or round robin.

Resuming the season would give 'sporting integrity' but would the reality be most of the behind closed door games become dead rubbers. Unless teams have something to play for a BCD game just becomes little more than a friendly.

Clubs and players with nothing to play for will want it over as quickly as possible. Our best chance is to quickly as possible pick up the 15-20 points before the risk of the whole thing shutting down again.

PPG, finish the season and restart 2020/21 when games can be played in front of crowds has to be the way forward.

This is the most sensible comment I've seen so far in this whole kerfuffle.

Worst episode ever.

If you were being cynical, a couple of end of season ideas have been put out there this week. Maybe EFL are testing the water on fan reaction by ideas being leaked in the press?

 ‘‘Tis all bollocks.

Either play out all the fixtures or end it now. I listened to a podcast by that Paddy owner of Posh - he reckons it makes more financial sense to play out the season via iFollow than to just stop now.

if the season is voided hopefully supporters initiate a class action lawsuit against the EFL to get a refund on a season that ‘never happened’. I would be done with football at that point anyway so wouldn’t care about the consequences, but hopefully the threat alone of this will be enough to stop any thoughts of voiding.

Also any scenario that sees Southend and Bolton in league 1 next season will be beyond farcical and probably leave equally uninterested.

Voiding the Premier League season is not an option that we should even be entertaining. The same applies to all our leagues. Curtail them, perhaps, if the agonies of the coronavirus crisis mean either that the public really don’t care or it is no longer feasible to complete the matches. But do not void them, because that would be to bow to the politics of envy. It would be a victory for greed and fear. It would be a victory for vandalism.

Voiding plays to the lowest common denominator. It allows failure to wriggle off the hook. It allows failure to thwart success. It gets everything the wrong way round. Voiding is not about achieving something yourself; it is about stopping others achieving something. It is about a victory for vested interests. It is about denying players something they have worked for because you cannot bear to see them get their reward.

Voiding is about wiping something out, not creating it. It is about destroying something, not building it. It is about trying to bully your way into having another go because you have messed it up this time. It is about trying to avoid your fate if you are facing relegation or failure to qualify for the Champions League. It is about trying to dodge what you deserve.

A sane summing up by Oliver Holt

I didn't think that there was really anything more to say about the current season and the ultimate outcome.  It's apparent that I was wrong on that.

If a decision isn't made soon to finish the season then Oliver would have been wrong

No idea why there is this haste to finish this season, its likely the case that next season will be equally buggered by restrictions to prevent further outbreaks so why not just wait as its unlikely a 'new' season will be necessary until Aug-Sept 2021.

Haven't UEFA put a beginning of August date to finish 19/20 season including the Champions League final? Assume that trickles down to the EFL if promotion and relegation is to happen.

Think it's end of July for domestic leagues so they can do remaining rounds of Champions League and Europa League in August

I think there will be a 20/21 season of sorts. without fans for a lot of it maybe. no idea how it's going to be financed though at our level (though I've paid 1/5 of next year's at money already)

if you wait to finish the season, most lower League squads will be vastly different from June 30th. it would be a farce.

UEFA have given governing bodies a deadline of May 25 to inform them of their plan for resuming games.

French football cancelled now too, meeting next month to decide on promotion/relegation/European places

regional hubs.. can't see this being popular

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/exclusive-efl-football-league-coronavirus-covid-19-a4427041.html

Doesn't make any difference to fans if it's behind closed doors though does it? Other than deterring people from wanting to go and stand outside anyway a la PSG fans. Makes it easier to staff too and with less staff. Seems a good idea, unless I'm missing something?

There is no perfect option, whatever is decided is going to split opinions across the whole football community.

I think a lot people are still clinging to the hope that the season can be resolved in the normal fashion in a few months. Therefore anything different to that will be shit, regardless of what the resolution is.

This

The solution will have to be one that affects the least number of clubs adversely. Ppg is a piece of piss in our league but in L1 with only 3 points separating 2nd from 8th clubs are going to miss out on a tiny fraction of a point - hopefully the piss stains.

As long as the leagues are finalised, position wise, maybe different solutions can be applied to different leagues.

That would open up a whole can of worms. Team X who lose out on promotion because league 1 ends things with one particular solution could then say well League 2 has done it this different way, if league 1 had done it the same way we would have got promotion.

IMO all levels within in a country have to have same solution, infact I’d say all league in Europe should all do the same thing for consistencies sake but that UEFA’s call I guess.

Some teams will get shit on, some teams will benefit unfairly whatever the solution is

Bit late for that, unless just voiding the season is the only answer, given Holland have done just that and France are certainly not completing their leagues.

The big hitters are going to try to soldier on but still I wonder whether the lowers (anywhere) will?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52443197

The clubs, players and Sky don’t give a rat’s arse about anything other than to keep the wonga rolling in.

Hope it gets shut down and fucks a few of them over.

Still irks me the football gossip on the BBC site saying so and so is to agree a contract etc. Unless clubs are really stupid (and some are) no one is going to offer 500 grand a week for someone. They (the BBC)are as responsible as anyone for trying to keep the facade going.

Something to maybe bring a smile to some of you. Apologies, Twitter bashed the shit out of the quality but the video footage is off my old Xperia Mini.

Good times will come back and we'll get these moments again.

If anyone spots themselves on it (highly unlikely due to quality being down to about 420p) please let me know and I'll make sure you're acknowledged :)

So...erm, enjoy I guess.

https://twitter.com/BambooCreatives/status/1255532656126832641?s=19

Was on the bank that day.
Fucking freezing.
Didn't go on the pitch tho

Only time I’ve gone on the pitch was the playoff win at Tranmere. Had words with Moxey!

Don't agree with the idea but you could see the CG being a South West hub for League Two given our good access to transport and standard of our pitch.

Plymouth too far away and FGR or Cheltenham poor access and Newport pitch is terrible

Don't remember it being cold...might've been the beer jacket though. Cracking day though. What you don't see on that though is, some bloke says "What a spanking" and indeed. 5-0 is 5-0 in anyone's book.

We'll have our day again.

I imagine the PL are shitting it as they are going to have to pay a hell of a lot of TV money back/not receive it if they don't deliver what they are contracted to provide.

I imagine the ramifications are going to seriously affect some of the smaller PL clubs if that is the case, possibly worse than lower league ones.


I assume the hubs will be for the leagues different to the host clubs (if that makes sense) otherwise the team will be at an advantage, so possibly L1 hub be CG and Lg 2 say Ashton Gate or something like that?

No games, no fans, no TV subscriptions, no Sky money, no blood sucking PL clubs, no monopoly on success = football may be back on track for ALL clubs, not just the chosen few.

It’s going be interesting to see which clubs get shook out of the footballing tree - could list a fair few candidates.

Sympathise with the sentiment and I'd also enjoy the end outcome you paint, but the problem is there could be a hell of a lot of clubs go to the wall in the meantime, good clubs that mean a lot to their communities, not just the ones causing the issues. And ours could be one, I think we're in a better place than most L2 clubs but I don't think any football club is insulated from a prolonged shutdown.

Steve Evans Manager of mid table Gills:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52390528

Finish it or void it.

Everyone else:
Fuck off Fatty

He's definitely just trying to fight for his mate MacAnthony's cause there - whose anti-PPG/As Is.

Anyone who comes out in favour of either ppg or complete void does so from a selfish standpoint. Us included.

Peterborough would fall out of the POs under ppg

French prem have announced PSG as champions. Hopefully a few other leagues follow.

But PSG don't play in the other leagues.... ;)

I would be happy with PPG now and get it finished.

Listening to the 5Live Daily Football chat on how the PL might conclude the season last night (it was from a few days ago, listening on pod) and they went into loads of detail about what you'd need to do to even complete the season behind closed doors in terms of player safety etc. They were talking about whole teams being quarantined for 14 days in a sealed off hotel before any matches could be played, then having to stay in isolation as a team until all games had been played. Then each team and all their staff would need to be tested regularly, certainly before each game and if anyone tests positive the whole team is quarantined and cannot play for that period until they all have clean tests etc. It's a logistical nightmare. Most likely scenario it seems to me is that the PL try to complete the season behind closed doors and the whole thing falls apart in the first week after the first few positive tests. If nothing else because players will refuse to put their own health at risk.

8th June being touted for PL return?

Believe it when I see it.

https://youtu.be/Ni2FohbJnJc

My personal view is that for the financial futures of clubs the season really needs to be finished asap, effective leaving 2 options.

1. Finish the season using PPG (have to work out promotion and relegation)
2. Abandon the season.

The longer this goes on I can see 2 being implemented.

I would hate to think option 2 was even being considered at all but the longer it goes on the more I can see the season being abandoned.

The outcome though will depend a lot on what the other leagues are doing, around europe and in the National League, whether thats PPG or as it stands we will have to wait and see.

I don't see why anybody would think #2 would be more likely. PPG would surely be the least worst option of the two? By some margin.

Binning it off just rewards failing clubs.

Looks like the end game is in sight. God knows how many clubs can survive until 2021 with no income.

‘Now, after an EFL board meeting yesterday, club captains and PFA reps have been told to relay to their team-mates the very real possibility of no more football being played.

Sportsmail understands that players have been told in the last 24 hours that, despite plans to resume training in May, there is very little expectation at EFL level of any football being played in June.

In terms of supporters, they are not expected back in EFL stadiums until next January at the earliest.

One of the main problems facing the EFL is the high number of coronavirus tests for players that would be required in order to see the current season through to its conclusion safely. ’

Here’s a leaked conversation between the Bristol Rovers club captain informing their playing staff the outcome of the meeting with the EFL.

The meeting was attended by all EFL club captains to pass on to their respective clubs About 6th post down

https://gaschat.co.uk/thread/16220/serious-leaked-players-tape?page=1&scrollTo=616441

Shock horror, fat bastard whose team has nothing to play for wants season expunged

So 3 up from each league and no relegations, not sure how that is going to work?

Be interesting to see how the duty of care angle would be enforced by the government/HSE, considering they are bound by same WRT to NHS staff.

Aye, Bolton get a reprieve which basically means they havent been punished. If it gets expunged should be implemented next season

There again, if Bolton and Southend are still in L1 I’d imagine they’d still take 2 of the relegation spots.

More whether there are enough clubs left to fill 3 EFL leagues.

PSG crowned Ligue One Champions as their season is ended

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11820/11981197/paris-saint-germain-crowned-ligue-1-champions-after-french-season-called-off

That means the scummers go up to the Championship

Not if it's PPG they won't

PSG won it using PPG

‘Championees, Championees’

They will if this system is used!

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ipswich-town-promoted-coventry-city-4089904

The games in hand will provide major headaches for the EFL.

As mentioned a billion times, anything beyond playing out the season will upset a percentage.

...and I even think playing it out won't be the level playing field everybody thinks.

Maybe the answer is to have one round of games to catch up on the games in hand then end the season on points per game.

Or PPG is calculated and added to games in hand.

One bonus whenever it starts is you wont see the dirty fuckers spitting everywhere.

You mean that non-League yo-yo clubs like Yoxford United and Yo-yovil Town will play at their old grounds?

TBF thats a fucking shit way of deciding IMO.

PPG IS the only fair way and promote teams based upon league position alone with no play offs, so top 4 after PPG calculations go up from this league and top 3 in L1 etc.

The best outcome out of all of this would be a massive society restructuring, turn away from the economic liberal route of money over people in all aspects of life. Part of that would be football clubs becoming.... well clubs. Run by members for the comunity. That would be nice.

Commie bastard!

Bradford City have stopped selling STs for next season - offering free iFollow or a total refund for those who have already purchased one. Club statement said that next season will be starting with no fans present.

https://www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk/news/2020/may/club-statement-city-for-all-202021-season-tickets/

Just a thought...  If the PL is to be made up of 23 teams next season our record 100 goals conceded could be in danger of being toppled.

Communism was the best system invented. Unfortunately its always been headed by corrupt psychopathic capitalists in every single example.

If the club said you could watch all our homes games for say £50-100 till the end of season on TV I’d say yes please. Worry about next season after we have completed this one.

If it meant we could complete the season I'd pay it and watch online.

I’ve already paid upfront to watch all games on iFollow. Thieving bastards!

EFL confirmed that Academy season is over.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2020/may/efl-statement-academy-games-programme/

Shortly expected to confirm end of WWII

Didn't it finally end for many on the 31st January?  :D ;)

Well if the games are BCD, then you’ll have no choice. Other than not paying or going around someone else’s house that is, with lockdown and social distancing of some sort after it won’t be that easy.

Had a few owners issue statements. Be nice to hear from Power and his stance.

iFollow have a fucking good opportunity here to corner the streaming market for all. They'll have to seriously up their game and have a decent set of customer query channels that are highly responsive. Like you know...an actual Live Chat facility and a team that can resolve issues during a match.

Customer experience in this field is paramount if they want to keep that contract I'd say. So far those using it has probably been low (I mean the genuine users), so even if getting complaints, they've been able to fob off or even be totally unresponsive to customer complaints to date.

If I can watch a pretty much uninterrupted live stream on B365 (insert major bookie) with some (dubious) commentary for as little as a £1. Then iFollow have no excuse for delays in live streaming or loss of audio. An occasional hiccup is annoying but not virtually every match. Get it right and they'll be around longer. Fuck it up with a higher volume of sign ups incoming and people will rightly tell them to fuck it. Semi fastish buck possibly but zero longevity with that approach.

In any case I can imagine one of the major bookies or someone else winning that contract, as live streaming for the EFL goes mainstream. Once they've opened the door on it, I can't see them not providing it as an option continually. It won't be the death of live footy because there will always be a chunk of people who want to go in the flesh. However, with apps like MelodyVR around that bring music gigs to people who can't make it/missed out/are ill etc, it is a helpful resource. I can only see money getting ploughed into that area regarding sports; in due course. Bringing the matchday experience to the home. It'll never be quite the same but it will provide us with a further option(s) as to how we approach, attend and view our live sport in the very near future.

I haven't seen this posted previously but here's the audio of Alex Rodman of Bristol Rovers relaying the information from a recent conference call regarding what could happen next...

How they'll decide on the third promoted club in L1 on 'sporting merit' I will never know.

https://youtu.be/S81IiX1KqYg

cane across quite well in that.


given what he said, it's asking a hell of a lot of the out of contract players to say 'yes' to play on

 :spank:

Don't give him too much stick over his typo

oh ffs. I log in to see all this

You should have twigged...

Maybe Bamboo can comment

My current gut feeling is that the Premier League will, somehow, return and EFL will not.

Germany's attempts to re-start will probably be harmed by the fact that three Cologne players have tested positive with no symptoms.

Think you're right, although I'd add the caveat that I think the PL will return, they'll quickly find that it's impossible to isolate/quarantine players/teams who have tested positive and still fulfill fixtures and they'll be back to the drawing board inside the 1st couple of weeks.

Has anything been said about how replacing Bury will be handled if all the 19/20 results are voided?

Apologies if already covered, but surely one club (Crewe or Swindon presumably) would go up to Div 1 and one club from the National League (presumably Barrow) would go up to Div 2.

Another can of worms.

Unfortunately, Bamboo is a grass (no pun).

So the prem teams are open to Neutral venues if no relegation. Which basically screws everyone else. I do hope some of the wankers do go bust if that does happen.

But the team's in the relegation zone seemingly don't like that idea unless it's no relegation, a few of them I believe have to play the top 6, its like turkeys voting for Christmas, if they can come up with a way of keeping themselves on the gravy train then they will.

With only 6 needing to vote against anything put to them then you would not bet against them getting their way, but that then opens the door on what they do about promotion from the championship as surely they wont want to add 3 extra teams and add more games, the poor loves already play too many games.

The FA  / PL should make the decision and the club made to abide by the decision.

The Premier League's decision making mechanism is by a vote of the clubs.

The group who want no relegation have conveniently overlooked the fact that if the jeopardy of relegation is removed there are a large number of “dead rubbers” in the remaining games (basically any game not involving a team contending for a European place). Do they seriously think that (for example) Bournemouth v West Ham or Aston Villa v Brighton (I haven’t checked if these are actually still to play but they illustrate my point) will be remotely interesting to anyone if there is no relegation?
If they agree this the TV companies will want their contracts reduced because the PL has acted in a way which reduces the interest in those games.
Self interest has blinded them to common sense.

Trust Bournemouth to be against the proposals.

Fucking scrubbers.

@McDonellDan

Waterford's players/staff were informed by the club today they were being temporarily laid off. Reaction from a Blues boss Alan Reynolds coming shortly on @IndoSport - he was surprised to find out the news from a player

I get the argument, but the TV money being paid for these last rounds of fixtures won’t be impacted by whether or not fans are in the stadium

Will impact the overseas sales tho.
Those foreign channels won't want to pay for friendlies.

Proper cunts trick doing that by email

Here’s the solution. If there is no relegation those 3 clubs who would have been relegated retain their PL status but, financially, only receive the parachute payments they would have received by being relegated.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020/0504/1136449-disgusted-waterford-players-staff-laid-off-by-email/

Like so much of this imagine it will depend on what the precise cdontract says betwen the TV companies and the PL, can imagine the TV companies will be against paying top dollar for what willl be on the whole fairly pointless friendlies, probably played at little above walking pace with little contact between players.

Hasn't he been wanting to pull out of Waterford for a while now?

I think this season was to be Power's last with Waterford... or something like that.

I seem to remember him accusing them of conning him out of money or something like that and same issues caused them to be banned from playing in Europe.  Imagine he's just refused to put anymore money in and as a result they have no cashflow.

He was screwed over from what I read; given promises by people in the Irish FA that were not kept.

Wasn't it down to legal action by another club, linked to the date of Powers investment making them ineligible for Europe or something like that?

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/waterford-in-limbo-as-euro-doubts-prompt-power-exit-fears-over-potential-240k-budget-hit-38030575.html

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/we-feel-we-have-been-totally-misled-waterford-owner-lee-power-slams-fai-over-clubs-europa-league-ban-38031763.html

Either way clearly you wouldn’t plough anymore money in so this was inevitable.

Yes.

But apparently he was assured, by the Irish FA, that the legal issue in question was already covered. Only for it to turn out to not be the case. Apparently he went ahead and invested more on the back of the assurances he was given and ultimatley lost a fair whack as a result.

Or somethign like that.

Love him or loathe him, MacAnthony talks a lot of sense here - along with Mark Palios

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/05/player-wages-and-contracts-will-bankrupt-efl-clubs-its-time-for-the-pfa-to-act

Who sent the email?

His Son, apparently. He's the chief exec, or whatever title he has.

Bad business sense not to have it in writing.

From the horses mouth, so to speak....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52543735

Decisions within days apparently.

The MacAnthony piece for those who are interested is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/04/efl-football-is-a-trillion-dollar-industry-it-cant-die-darragh-macanthony-peterborough

Audrey's link is to the Palios article - he's right, both worth reading

Rick Parry says parachure payments are "an evil that must be eradicated" and calls for a bailout for Football league clubs from the Premier League

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/05/efl-chief-parachute-payments-evil-eradicated-football

Wasnt is his idea in the first place?

But yes they are shite, rewards failure

This is a good summary of the issue and Power's view. It was to do with reforming the club and then a 3 year rule applying to play in Europe. One of the other Irish clubs objected and took their place.

John Delaney who made the promise that Waterford would be OK got the boot as FAI CEO and his assurances went with him.

https://www.the42.ie/lee-power-interview-2-4991238-Feb2020/

Michael Gove apparently.

The FAI have been a mess for years, Delaney is facing some serious investigations of the chaos under his tenure and it's likely to take some years to sort out, according to people who know Irish football better than I do

According to The Telegraph there is a meeting next week which is expected for L1 and L2 to be abandoned.

Ppg likely

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/06/league-one-two-could-abandoned-next-week-planned-efl-vote/

Audrey - is there any chance of you cutting hand pasting as I can't access the full article without starting a free trial, which is not for me.
Thanks.

Bundesliga to reopen this month, possibly as early as 15th May

Here you go, paywall-free

https://archive.fo/FfDI1

Very handy site that - just grab the paywalled URL, go to http://archive.fo and paste it into the text box and hey presto!

Alas, I don't think it'll change much for the English lower leagues.

Who knows?

Try this one
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8292787/League-One-League-Two-risk-abandoned-WEEK.html

Just a shame it undermines an already struggling industry.

Fair point. In the case of the Telegraph, though, with their billionaire owners who have done everything they can to undermine our demoracy, they can fuck off.

They can all fuck off, left and right. The British press are a fucking disgrace. They have been for a long time and are getting worse. I know we need 'a' press, but in it's current form they are not to be trusted and do not serve us well.

It's sad that people will lose their jobs but, even then, some of those that will lose jobs have been self-serving wankers willing to destroy other peoples' lives for their own personal gain. Fuck them too.

This is from the Telegraph's Economics Editor earlier this week:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXZW6mCXgAcgCsR?format=jpg&name=small)

Fair enough, but you can go first mate.

Some cryptic comments on Twitter about Plymouth about to be docked points and Macclesfield going kaput.

Right. Confirmed Macclesfield docked 7 points for postponing their game v Plymouth.

The journo worded it horrendously so it seemed like Plymouth were getting points docked but that was never the case.

That makes the bottom of L2 interesting if PPG comes into play.

I prefer the interesting issues at the top of L2!!!

Well, if they do go bust,their record this season will be expunged and we’ll lose 3 points. Not sure how it affects other clubs at the top.

Yeah Stevenage will still go down though, and rightly so!

No Dutch football matches with crowds until there is a vaccine against the coronavirus, says the health minister.

That could be decades... there's still no vaccine for HIV for example. Does he mean vaccine alone or vaccine/effective treatment?

Until then they will have a shhhmoke and a pancake.

"We cannot yet mention a date for the last step, the mass gatherings. That is actually only possible if there is a vaccine and no one knows how long it will take. We hope of course soon, but a year or more is very real."

There are apparently 460 clinical trials of potential vaccines underway at the moment worldwide, I am pinning my hopes on the Llamas.

Very bold statement there. If they go down that route and say in 12 months there’s still no vaccine I think they’ll have a lot of civil unrest on their hands demanding it return.
That goes for everything COVID19 related to be honest, if in 12 months no vaccine is on the horizon and there are still restrictions people will be demanding a return to full normality and we’ll just have to live with the virus.

Kind of.  Except 'full normality' will be a bit different to what went before.  I'm sure 2020 will be a bit of an era-defining date for historians in future.  Pre-2020 life in some respects will come to be seen as quaintly old-fashioned.  And probably in more ways than we appreciate right now.

But I take your general point.  The longer the pandemic lasts, the more difficult governments will find it to enforce restrictions.

Its not full normality, its the new normal as the government has chosen to utter in just about every sentence, get with the messaging!

If I've got it right, we lose 3, Crewe and Plymouth 4, Cheltenham 3 and Exeter 6. I didn't bother with anyone farther down

League in Norway starting again on 16th of June, teams able to train again from now.

The Athletic saying that Leagues 1 and 2 will be told next week there is no hope of them finishing the season and to vote on how to decide the season. Once again the EFL not giving a shit about anything below Championship. They will also look fucking stupid if they dont promote lower league teams whilst crowing about suing the PL if teams dont go up from the Champuonship.

PPG is the only way for me, rather than null and voiding. It rewards failure, are Bolton and Macclesfield going to serve their punishments next season? Teams also saying they dont agree with PPG in case they could enter a run of form and its disproportianate is a load of bollocks too, you cant guess possible results. Stevenage, havent won a game since January and would be rewarded. Just end it now, PPG the only option.

Promote top three, have the chairmen from the playoff teams have a fourball at a golf course and promote the winner of that, promote Barrow. Job done :D

So Swindon will go up as champions with Crewe, Plymouth and Cheltenham while in Coventry, Rotherham and Oxford will go up to the Championship using a formula different to the one that would see Wycombe rise a billion places.

Is it a different formula to a straight PPG then?

Makes sense, i only saw the first part of the article as it was behind a paywall.

So, the Oxford owner has achieved more in 3 years than ours has in 5 ;)

If this is the methodolgy the EFL clubs opt for then I'm not concerned by the Oxford news because Swindon getting out of L2 is the most important outcome. I'm not hugely bothered about the trophy either but losing to Crewe with a game in hand would perhaps linger on the mind.

To be honest, I'd love to end the run against Oxford and you can't do that without playing them but am content to avoid the circus for at least another season. Their momentum pre-suspension justifies promotion.

Cheltenham Town (a) again though. Great!

Literally just read the Athletic piece and came on here to say exactly that. While by and large, weighted PPG seems the least worst way of resolving matters and obviously as you say us going up is the most important thing, Cheltenham again .... nnnnggghhhhh! Seems harsh on Exeter as well who are a far better side

They will rue the momentum of Cheltenham but Exeter were wobbling and Chelt were kicking on.

Oh I know and the (weighted PPG adjusted) table doesn't lie and all that, but still feel Exeter were a better side. Which doesn't always translate into better results, esp in L2. Except for us, we are fucking glorious!

I wish we didn't mess up against FGR so we could have been top in every given scenario beyond playing the remaining games and ending it 'as it is'.

If it does end 'as it is' then I'm going to write a very polite yet highly critical letter to the officials who gave Northampton that goal at the CG.

Deliver it wrapped round a brick through their kitchen window

Gutted if the piss stains go up. Bunch of cunts.

I was thinking exactly the same thing myself.

Their weighted PPG makes sense. Worked out by PPG at home x23 + PPG away x23. This would be the final points tally by my calculations:

Swindon – 87.51
Crewe – 85.34
Plymouth – 84.13
Cheltenham – 81.78
Exeter – 81.17

We lost to the better team that day.

Promote but don't award championship or award trophies.

Was the same ref for the Ecotricity FC match was it not and he was equally as inept.

I agree that if using the PPG method, it wouldn't be appropriate to give the title to the top team. There will always be an asterisk by it anyway.

if they finish 'as is' there shouldn't be a champion, just promoted sides.

actually I think that's probably how it should be anyway if I'm honest.

edit: oh, should have read the rest of the posts making the same point first

I want there to be a champion.

That is provided it's us and not somebody else, in which case, fuck that.

Was just gonna post the same thing, same ref for both games, both with equally shite decisions in. How he's a league ref, god only knows.

Yep, this.

I don't mind being Champions*

I can live with the asterix. Who's going to beat obsess over that fact? Oxford? Nope as they're going up with one too.

Nose bleed time.

Thats a fair point.

I think we are all coming to the conclusion that L1 and L2 will not be finished now and the season will end, and probably rightly so. The Premier League is a different matter and I can see them finishing with BCD as crowds seem to be far less important a factor at that level than it is financially and atmosphere wise than in the bottom 2 leagues.

The Championship will have to decide which way to jump.

A form of PPG has to be the only viable solution and there will always be some teams not happy with any decision but we are at the top on merit and exactly the opposite for Stevenage. Even if we aren't Champions* then any scenario that we are promoted will be fine, although I want to be Champions*.

Let's hope Crewe are not League Two Champions 2019-2020*.

If they are they are, we will have to live with that, as long as we get promoted*.

In fact, let's hope that it isn't League Two 2019-2020*

*Void

Clubs may get promoted and relegated but the big question remains.

Which clubs will still be around when football starts up again?

The pyramid could well look entirely different.

Sunday league at best.  Fucking Wanker.

If the League 1 and 2 final positions were decided on weighted PPG and assuming the Championship and PL resume.

Why not have one leg play off games for those in the 4 play off spots. They would generate TV interest and payments to cover wages.

I don't see how the 3rd in League 1 or 4th in League 2 can take the play off promotion spot if that league placing hasn't won promotion since 1986?

Oxford going up or not I still think think the play-off promotion spot should be scrapped this season as a form of compromise. It minimises controversy in terms of who goes up from league 1 and also the league 1 relegation. Similarly it’s equally tight at the bottom of the championship excluding the bottom 2.

Have to agree.

I’d use Rock, Paper, Scissors if it meant that lot not going up

Whilst STFC 's promotion is the only outcome that really matters, I just can't help myself worrying about the Pox and League One

autos only  :pint:

1   fair
2   practicable and most importantly
3   satisfy my personal concerns

Top 3 up: PPG  :)

Ditto with Wycombe leapfrogging all into 3rd place.  (but I'd quite like Wycombe as well as Oxford and Pompey on next year's fixture card)

PO Promotion  :hmmm:
Allows Pisstains a chance and also Pompey both of whom I'd like us to play next year.

Season voided with no promotions :crash:

Really?

I'm with you why would anyone worry about the pox as they're insignificant and will never be as big as STFC and even this season we topped their biggest crowd of 11,917'against Man City with over 13,000 against Exeter!

Darragh MacAnthony already whinging about PPG and threatening legal action if it's anything other than playing out all the games to conclude the season.

https://twitter.com/DMAC102/status/1258755944021966849

Right on schedule. I predict a lot of noise and then maybe some tentative steps and then... nothing.

Expect a lot of noise from clubs that haven’t been good enough all season but somehow have a chance off the play offs.

Good one, you do know that Oxford vs Man City was a sell out?

As it was when we played them a year before.

What a shame you never got round to finishing that 4th side then, might have got a few more in :)

It'll work out quite nicely when games restart behind closed doors, they can do the drive-in football thing like FC Midtjylland are planning except you'll be able to see the pitch. Won't be laughing then.

Did you get yourself a 50/50 scarf?  :)

:D

Oh, the wit!

You're much better at virtue signalling paul, everyone knows it.

My point exactly they will never be as big as STFC neither can they get new roles our record crowd of 32000 1972 against Arsenal

I think that was the point. You had a sell out against Man City and we had more against Exeter.

Not sure we can take any moral high ground on attendances when we hardly, if ever, in the last 30 years have had a full ground at the CG for this particular derby.

There are multiple CG attendances of 7/8K for our “big” rivalry

Which wasn't a sell out  :)

When was the last time we sold our total allocation at the scum ?

Agreed but if we get things right on the pitch it proves we have the potential for bigger crowds than them

They were always around 10 or 11k from what I remember.  The Pox never used to bring more than about 1200. Because it's a bit of a "punchy" derby quite a few from both sides would stay away.

I guess when you're facing the prospect of playing two divisions below us, you have to cling on to possibilities like this.


We should probably just end football forever then. Make a table of record attendances and assign league positions directly from it. Done. No need to play any more games.


If our match against Man City hadn't sold out there'd be a semblance of a point.


Good to hear some reason.

In 2011 I couldn't get away end tickets so gave a Swindon postcode at your box office and sat in the Arkell's.

How very old fashioned. Clearly it should be done by comparing each club's balance sheet and ability to splurge vast quantities of corrupt regime's cash on superstar players

 If the season in both leagues finishes as things stand we wont play you next season but both will be happy. If played behind closed doors it could still be the same outcome but one or both of us could still mess up if we don't hit the ground running leaving us where we both are, both in  league one or you in the championship two leagues apart! Anything is still possible

Ah good, back to the virtues. Pick whichever method of comparison suits you best and gives you the illusion of superiority.

But it may be best to avoid looking at the league tables or any results from the last 19 years.

Bloody hell, it was a joke and it was a dig at the like of Man City, PSG and Newcastle, not your lot. No-one's going to bother sportswashing via your tinpot outfit :) Think you need a beer mate.

Ah I thought you meant our Thai guy. It did seem a bit rich coming from a supporter of a club that have been relegated for dodgy dealings.

Demoted it was before a ball was even kicked! Shame we never had Alan Sugar behind us at the time we would have just got our wrist slapped with a small fine!

Gotta love middle aged men arguing about whose lower league club is the best

I had this in a family quiz last night.  I guessed (a) 32,000; (b) Arsenal & (c) 1980.  So just 2 out of 3.

We played Arsenal again in 1979 in the league cup in front of just under 22,000

Thanks.  That's probably what I had at the back of my mind.  Well before my time, anyway.

I was still at school and one of my best memories

I'm under no illusions here, and I couldn't give a monkeys 'who is best'. All a bit of fun.

Exactly

Exactly as I see it MG. fair play to ya!

Mixed messages then



Because earlier you played a very convincing mong.

All good fun isnt it.

I do long for the days when we spend a few years in the National League though ;)

We've done ok since 1879 a little longer than the early 60's neither have never changed names!

Is this summer the centenary of our election to the League?  100 year unbroken run.  If so, it's a shame the final lap is going to end this way.

Well, that little Thai fella set the wheels in motion for Reading’s financial disaster and, no doubt, a similar scenario will eventually unfold at Oxford - probably augmented by the spawniest promotion ever. They’ll either just crash and burn in the Championship or, least likely, throw somebody’s money at it and still crash and burn ending with a financial noose round their neck.

Does anybody know who he is a front for?

*Removes Russell Lynch from Christmas card list. Adds Russell Lynch to 'VIP invititation to Hell' list*

And yes 'tit' was intentional  ;)

That cup run got me the bug. Shame we haven't had any cup runs like it recently to maintain the pipeline. It's the legacy we will have from the current owner.

Great times Arsenal Spurs, Wolves all massive cup games and Town held their own against the big boys and fantastic away support which will live with me forever

Sadly, those 'good old days' are unlikely to return and the effects of the current pandemic will only widen the gulf between the lower leagues and the 'big boys'.

Yes I agree

I'm sure this will have been dealt with in a thread before I joined. I attended from 1975 and throughout the seventies I can't recall ever paying to get in. On the Shrivenham road I and lots of other kids got passed over the turnstile and for the seats I just walked up the rickety stairs and in. I doubt my Grandfather ever stopped to get me a ticket. My apologies to him if I am wrong. He was a season ticket holder from after the war until the mid 80's so new the bloke on the door. Similarly, my Dad was a steward in the North Stand, and again, I just walked in. How many used to climb up and over into the Stratton bank? Lots. My point is that attendance figures are bollocks and always have been. Arsenal 79, Tottenham 80 etc figures made up. Who remembers the huge laugh when the attendance was announced v Ipswich first game after demotion? Quickly altered five minutes later to a huge cheer. So we have probably had much bigger support and the same for all clubs. Corrupt clubs and officials and who says no to a freebie? I used to think I owed them but having sat through the 99/2000 season I dismissed that thought!

I honestly can’t remember when it changed from pay cash at the turnstile to pre-paid ticket entry.

All that physical money sloshing around on Matchdays was too tempting for most owners - hence the incredulity at some of the announced attendances. Also meant less money to pay the away club, too.

Suppose they’re using more technological methods to siphon it off nowadays.

Absolutely, I say I hate Oxford, but tbh I actually hate the tiny minority of Oxford supporters that create havoc at games with totally mindless violence, same reason I hate Bristol Rovers and City. Its not a club thing as such its a group of idiot supporters that I really hate.

I am sure in the same boat Swindon have a similar amount of idiot supporters that just go to games to have a fight and they don't actualyl really give a flying fuck about the actual result or the club they profess to support.

Don't stop posting Goat man becuase its always great to hear what other fans think about things rather than just having a Swindon viewpoint (thats a link for the oldies!).

To be honest what Robinson has done at Oxford this season turning them around after selling two key players they deserve to go up

What Coventry, Rotherham and Fleetwood have done is more commendable considering crowds, budgets and grown sharing goes

Not sure about Rotherham in that mix, and Fleetwood are being bankrolled.

B teams in the Football League to replace teams that have gone bust is being suggested again by, among others, Brighton's Technical Director. So faced with the prospect of the lower tiers of the football pyramid going bust, the Premier League clubs' reaction isn't to think how they can help out but how they can exploit the distress of historic clubs the game is founded on for their own gain. Wankers.

I understood that B teams was the price we had to pay for getting a survival handout from the PL - in which case, none should go bust.

Tbh, they only want to get experience for their young players - surely the loan system achieves that already.

No mention of a handout in the report I saw, just naked self-interest dressed up as "sharing resources"

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/b-team-idea-could-return-table-coronavirus-shutdown-brighton-dan-ashworth-a4436186.html

If you've seen something more in-depth, be interested to see it

Just read this and put 2 and 2 together

‘Parry said they would help Premier clubs send youth loans to EFL clubs if they needed them. I think that’s a great idea. In the short term. Doesn’t make them B teams. Prem are willing to give EFL cash if Prem start. I wouldn’t be knocking that idea either.’

If the big clubs take advantage of this and get partner clubs or b teams out of it then I’ll be done with football.

Lot of fans would be the same.

Sorry but who's that a quote from? Someone claiming to paraphrase Rick Parry and is the assertion that the Prem are willing to give EFL cash from Parry or this bloke you're quoting?

I'd rather go bust and start again

Journo

He reckons if the PL restarts they are willing to give EFL clubs a handout. I was presuming that in return they’d press for B teams again.

Only me surmising.

OK, but was this in a private conversation with said journo or (presumably) something you've seen quoted in an article or on Twitter? Not doubting you, just wondering where it's come from (e.g. if it's someone with a track record of being on the money, correspondent for one of the nationals or just some random bullshitter who strings for PA)

Nixon on Twitter

Cheers!

Who the hell do Brighton think they are, Billy Big Time?. Given their recent history you would think they would be more appreciative of the lower league situation.

If we hadn't sold them Gordon Greer....

The goldstone ground was a cracking ground but now they're just another soulless club

Went there in 95, we won 3-0  :)

Ah yeah Steve Finney bagged a couple :pint:

Just a week before the Bundesliga is due to resume, Dresden has put their entire squad in quarantine for two weeks after two players tested positive for Covid19. Likely to not be the only case. Be interesting to see how German football copes with this, I'd imagine the PL is watching very closely

Maybe they should just let herd immunity run through footballers.

It's not as if they'll be in close contact with more than the 30ish people who play that day, if they don't want to play then they don't get paid. Same deal as a lot of front line workers.

Strange, though, that Covid only seems to be infecting players of relegation threatened clubs. Brighton have now said a third, unnamed, player has contracted it and, blimey o Riley, none are showing symptoms. Nice and convenient, that. They also don’t  fancy neutral venues as it lessens their home advantage.

If clubs are trying to wriggle out using the Covid excuse then those players should be independently tested

Yes the goldstone was ace but the Amex is s far from soulless. One hell of a lot of effort was put into it to make sure it wasn’t.
Even the away end has details that prove they wanted anything but. Away fans have colored lights in their teams colours. A local beer from their own area and post match (unless it’s a team with a “history”, home and away fans can mix as they have djs hosting a  “party” for 2 hours after the final whistle

Absolutely.

I fucking hate almost every ground built in last 20 odd years or so, give me an old original ground every day.

However the Amex is superb, original unique design, character, etc.  Best new ground there is by a mile. Only downside is the location, miles outside Brighton itself.

Unfortunately they didn’t have much choice with location. They battled fucking hard for that ground. Yes I know there’s animosity between both sets of fans but don’t forget they helped us when diamond mike was trying to kill us.
It’s 3 stops from the main station but every fan with a ticket gets free public transport to and from the ground to make up for its location

It pains me to say it but as far as new grounds are concerned the Amex is excellent. Its probably just safe standing away from being the perfect modern football ground. It's well away from the town centre but transport is well organised, regular, quick and free. This means that you've got some of the best pubs that Brighton has to offer available for pre-match drinks. It really is no harder than the stroll to the County Ground.

It can be tricky to get away but as has been said above, they give you reasons to stick around which "flattens the curve" of the exodus.

Sent from my SM-N950F

However nice their ground is they're still cunts for suggesting B teams. Fucking cheek of them after struggling not so long ago, fucking wankers.

Their chief exec has, the fans I know would be as appalled as you and me

I'm not disputing that the ground and facalities are superb but I prefer less sanitised stadiums and would choose Southampton over Brighton for all round experience

See for me Southampton is the typical bog standard new build, there are 10 pretty much identical grounds in the country just with different colour seats.

On the flip side, the ground being slap bang in the city centre is a major plus

There is no doubt that St Marys is a far far better ground in every aspect than The Dell which was an absolute shit hole, there are a few cases of new stadiums being better than the old for certain, but not all by any means.

For me St Marys is easily the best of the new stadiums built this century, it has the feel of an older ground but with great facilities and positioning too. It just has a nice feel about it.

Yeah I'd noticed that as well.

As for the home advantage,  not sure that means that much in an empty stadium.

I understand (heard on radio actually) that the bottom 6 have the same number and breakdown of home and away games left anyway so it's all a bit of a dead cat.

Still hoping Bournemouth go down.

Cunts.

yes...any system that sees that outcome is approved by me.

I get it. Great opportunity to somehow avoid the drop but, man, if they do...

https://www.southendunited.co.uk/news/2020/may/blues-and-covid-19/

"Step 2 of government's recovery strategy includes "permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact".
Current aim is that this step "will be made no earlier than Monday 1 June". "

https://mobile.twitter.com/LauraScott__/status/1259833056380280832

(https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/1861/screenshots/39476/shot_1280411326.jpg)

Fair play to him for admitting its all about his own club’s interests

You would expect a chairman in his position to want the season voided.

Over on the piss-ridden pox stained forum, one of their Old Boys has suggested that their season ticket holders should vote in a referendum on how Poxford United should vote on if & how the current season can be finished.

Great idea if people respect the result of the referendum , eh lads?

League meeting tomorrow to decide how season will be concluded apparently, Wellens expecting decision Thursday or Friday

As each day/week passes, I fear that the likelihood of a void season increases.

The FA have come out and said that null and void is off the table

More and more looking likely to be the weighted ppg.

This won't happen.

If the National League had voided rather than cancelled the season then that may have been an option.

As it is, the season will definately not be voided and results expunged.

From what I have read only about 4 or 5 clubs would be in favour of voiding the leagues, every single one of them would be relegated under every PPG outcome so basically that makes their point totally biased, I am 100% certain this will not happen.

Noted thanks. I missed that then.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/season-will-not-be-voided-and-relegation-wont-be-scrapped-says-fa-chairman-greg-clarke-72j3rt7rt

Many thanks for this.

I note what you say about the NL - but I seem to recall that no decision has been made on the ultimate outcome of this season. Presumably this could ultimately result in no promotion to the FL.

What are you doing looking on there?! Weirdo.

So, we win the league, yes?

Unless 'as it stands' is on the poll and that wins.

I'm not sure where to start here..

Tbh, no club should be awarded a championship in these circumstances. An asterisk will have to suffice.

I know it's an obvious Swindon Town fan opinion given League One PPG and the fact that Town are likely to go up but I do think there's something logical about completing a Play-Offs to appease Exeter, Colchester, Northampton (and Portsmouth, Fleetwood and Peterborough).

Not passionately for it but it makes sense.

Season 3 of Sunderland til I Die will be an anti-climax though.

Premier League backs clubs who want neutral venues plan to be reconsidered - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52579299

Next week, PL teams in danger of relegation announce it would be grossly unfair to play games on days with a y in the name

Personally I'd make the bottom 4 teams  the neutral venues. Or bottom 6 if they want 6.

Premier League clubs have been warned by the FA that the 2019/20 season must be decided on sporting merit - ruling out the possibility of the season being declared null and void.

Whichever way Premier League clubs vote on how to proceed, the future must include promotion and relegation, clubs were told.

This means that runaway league leaders Liverpool will almost certainly claim their first top tier title in 30 years.

First title* in 30 years

 :sherlock:

Nah not having that, whatever the circs, if you finish top by virtue of being the best team in the league you deserve the trophy.

Im planning my own open top bus parade round the town!

I think it’s a maximum of 8 allowed on a double decker, what with social distancing.

Not even enough room for the team!

I'll happily see Swindon Town* - I think it's a bit of red hot football 'banter' we can heartily laugh off.

Plus 'What do Liverpool, Leeds United, Coventry City and Swindon Town have in common?' (or something along those lines) is nice future pub quiz question...

Fuck that im making one out of a cardboard box to wear whilst walking round town singing Championes Championes ole ole ole

If you limit it to Swindon Town contracted players who have played 15+ league games and discount loan players thats a perfect size.

Think Double Decker (lovely chocolate bar btw) is 8 on the top and 8 on the bottom, using social distancing. So a consistent first xi and three subs along with RW and the Bus Driver. Sorted.

BBC's Alistair Durden:

Think I'll stick with the TEF rumour mill. When's it not been right?

FFS, dragging it out! I know it's important to make the right decision, make sure everyone's consulted etc but blimey

#metoo

'There's only one Paul Benson'  :soapy tit wank:

"Alistair Durden" doesn't even sound like a real name. I'm sticking with Oaksey Moonraker.

😁😆😅🤣

I’ll only believe it when somebody spots Steve Lomas/Sheena Easton and/or a manatee pulling up in the County Ground carpark with the League 2 Trophy

With Jason Roberts sat in his car too in the car park, John Terry waiting in the wings for the pictures to be taken.

Will we have a closed top bus parade?

Nothing new, but a good summary of the decisions to be made in the EFL.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52644313

Yes, a good summary of some of the issues.

Also spotted this from yesterday. Bowyer's a bit of a tool....but not one of the sharpest.  He doesn't really [want to] understand the concept of PPG, does he?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52641394

Bowyer's "we've only been in the bottom 3 for one week of the season, so don't deserve to go down" shows an ignorance of many cruel last day of the season outcomes.

Tbf our relegations have generally been nailed on well in advance.

So...from next season, we're going to record the league table after every game, & then average that over the season to decide the final standings?  Bit worrying this, but I think someone needs to explain to Gary how league tables work.

Has that money left to STFC in a will been used yet? If not, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than on keeping the club afloat.

Also, if the club (Power) and the Trust had their funding in place to purchase the CG (£2m) couldn’t that be used instead as above?

Football in the community i think

Wrong Bowyer. This one's Lee.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2019/february/nigel-eady-trusts-fantastic-contribution/

I think the fairest solution all round is to not have any promotions/relegations at all, keep the tables as ppg in L2 and National level, promote Swindon who finish top on PPG in place of Bury making L1 back to its normal size of 24 teams again and then promote Barrow and Harrogate to L2.

Leave the rest as they were and start again, simple.

I can see nobody arguing about that........

Is that all the cash though?

Still as clear as mud in Barra https://www.nwemail.co.uk/sport/18441251.barrow-still-waiting-contradicting-views-league-season-will-end/

He left £2m, apparently he contributed around £800k to it from that.

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/17434050.nigel-eady-trust-donation-helps-get-swindon-town-charity-facility-plans-moving/

Nobody in Swindon, anyway!

I think whatever method is used or whether it’s declared null and void we’ll go up even if it’s just to replace Bury, as you say.

Mind you, if there’s a whole heap of clubs going to the wall, any league format will be entirely different to what we have now.