Should English football be suspended?

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
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The entire country is in lockdown, nobody can leave their homes for non-essential travel, covid cases & deaths are higher than they were in the “peak” when football was suspended last time (which surely makes now the peak?) and teams are having covid outbreaks and having to postpone matches. Is it time to halt the season?

Obviously there’s many pros & cons, and I think it could depend on what other leagues do as another suspended season in multiple countries would surely mean the cancellation of Euro 2020/21.

What do you think?
 
I think it's hard to sell a full lockdown to ordinary folk who's lives have been turned upside down - while propping up an industry that's full of idiots being payed disgusting amounts of money who can't even be arsed following the rules.
 
matt23 said:
I think it's hard to sell a full lockdown to ordinary folk who's lives have been turned upside down - while propping up an industry that's full of idiots being payed disgusting amounts of money who can't even be arsed following the rules.
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True. But instagram and other social media is full of "influencers" and celebrities who don't give a feck about the rules, its not like footballers are the only group of people in the public eye misbehaving.
 
No. But the players who keep breaking the rules should be punished, with a lot more than a vague press release promising they 'would be spoken to by the club'
 
Schmeichel's Cartwheel said:
The entire country is in lockdown, nobody can leave their homes for non-essential travel, covid cases & deaths are higher than they were in the “peak” when football was suspended last time (which surely makes now the peak?) and teams are having covid outbreaks and having to postpone matches. Is it time to halt the season?

Obviously there’s many pros & cons, and I think it could depend on what other leagues do as another suspended season in multiple countries would surely mean the cancellation of Euro 2020/21.

What do you think?
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Being biased glad it started but this is a selfish opinion. Should never of started in first place. Having one rule for pro footballers and another for the lesser lights is totally wrong.
 
Tiber said:
No. But the players who keep breaking the rules should be punished, with a lot more than a vague press release promising they 'would be spoken to by the club'
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Yeah this is what needs to be done. You'd think the clubs would come down harder on them seeing as these breeches will cost their teams points.
 
Hope it doesn’t stop but it feels silly now with so many cases what if someone actually dies.
 
Yes. The only reason it was ever started was due to greed.
 
It’s probably safe for Premier League teams who can afford safety precautions, yet still there are outbreaks at every club.

Go down to League 2 and can you still argue that it should be being played? Probably not. Can you have one rule for the top league and another for the rest? Probably? I don’t know.
 
Yes. Null and void.

Start new season in 8 months using last season's league table.
 
Probably should be stopped. It’s only being played for TV money sake. I bet the clubs would be fine with the FA Cup or Internationals being stopped. At the end of the day, it’s not really football without the fans being able to watch it together, either at the stadium itself or in other social places.
 
Not if it can be avoided. Ultimately it should come down to whether the players feel safe as nobody should be forced into environments where they’re put at risk. If the risk comes from their own actions, outside of playing then bans and huge fines should be handed out. If players can be banned for social media posts, then they should be banned if they’re breaking actual laws.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Probably should be stopped. It’s only being played for TV money sake. I bet the clubs would be fine with the FA Cup or Internationals being stopped. At the end of the day, it’s not really football without the fans being able to watch it together, either at the stadium itself or in other social places.
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If it is to be believed that players from some teams are still suffering from long covid then i would hope they'd continue, look at lowering the threshold for postponing games and where possible extending the season again. Before anyone asks, i know there are international comps. What else can they do? I wouldnt want our players getting COVID
 
I need the entertainment but looking at the stats today, yes it should. The UK is in a terrible place and is only going to get worse. We are telling the country that only essential work should be done away from the home therefore football should be stopped. It just sends out the wrong message, as much as I love it.

Also from the leagues point of view, if a single player becomes seriously ill or god forbid dies, it will be a terrible stain on their reputation and they will no doubt have cases against them from the LMA and PFA.

Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce are quite rightly shitting themselves.
 
While it's a dreadful situation at the moment , binning football would remove just that one bit of remaining joy that has kept millions just about sane.
 
acnumber9 said:
Not if it can be avoided. Ultimately it should come down to whether the players feel safe as nobody should be forced into environments where they’re put at risk. If the risk comes from their own actions, outside of playing then bans and huge fines should be handed out. If players can be banned for social media posts, then they should be banned if they’re breaking actual laws.
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I had this conversation on a work Zoom call. How can you get a fine for social media but the league won't act against players breaking covid rules. Crazy.
 
Pretty sure it'll be suspended again. Restarting the sport hinged on the idea that they could keep the staff safe, and training and playing together in these bubbles prevented players from being exposed to undue harm. That just isn't the case any more. Bubbles are being breached and other people - not just players, but club staff - are being exposed to the virus as a direct result.

Now that we know this plan can't prevent the staff from being exposed to undue harm, what we're saying is we want them to expose themselves to undue harm for our own entertainment. Let's get the gladiator games back up and running too while we're at it.
 
Sandikan said:
While it's a dreadful situation at the moment , binning football would remove just that one bit of remaining joy that has kept millions just about sane.
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I get joy from loads of things I can't do at the moment, cinema, bowling, bars etc. Football shouldn't be the exception, they all have families to and the virus won't go easy on those who work in the game.
 
lilcurt said:
I need the entertainment but looking at the stats today, yes it should. The UK is in a terrible place and is only going to get worse. We are telling the country that only essential work should be done away from the home therefore football should be stopped. It just sends out the wrong message, as much as I love it.

Also from the leagues point of view, if a single player becomes seriously ill or god forbid dies, it will be a terrible stain on their reputation and they will no doubt have cases against them from the LMA and PFA.

Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce are quite rightly shitting themselves.
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If Allardyce was that worried he wouldn't have took the job in the first place.
 
Given that football is supposed to create it's own bubble, separate from the general population, the overall numbers for the country or whether or not it's on lockdown should be all but irrelevant. What matters is how clean the bubble is and whether football is taking away critical ressources.
 
Dancfc said:
If Allardyce was that worried he wouldn't have took the job in the first place.
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Oh I again when it comes to him. But he is just one of hundreds of club staff who will be in the older age bracket and at greater risk.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Vaccinate the players. Football is good for the morale of the country.
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Naw, I don’t agree with that at all, they’re some of the most healthy people in the country can’t justify giving them the vaccine in front of the vulnerable.
 
lilcurt said:
I get joy from loads of things I can't do at the moment, cinema, bowling, bars etc. Football shouldn't be the exception, they all have families to and the virus won't go easy on those who work in the game.
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It isn't an exception though, other things are resuming that didn't in the first lockdown due to now having advanced safety measures and resources. TV production (including the soaps) are filming as normal and there's a lot more "risk" in that given indoor filming and older cast member, heck they even had I'm a Celeb on during lockdown 2.0.

There's also the option of putting players into world cup style camps for the lockdown aswell.
 
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Yes. There's going to be more and more outbreaks at clubs and without postponement, games become a farce. The competitiveness is surely going to be put in question. That's without even looking at the health side and just from a sporting perspective.
 
Deery said:
Naw, I don’t agree with that at all, they’re some of the most healthy people in the country can’t justify giving them the vaccine in front of the vulnerable.
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If Israel can pay a premium for shit loads of vaccines then surely the PL can move a few brown envelopes to get a couple of thousand!
 
I would hate for it to stop, but that’s just me being selfish. I’ve really enjoyed the games coming thick and fast, it’s seeing me through the winter nicely. Would be a big void if it stops but understand if it’s for the greater good.

I agree with whoever said there should be tougher sanctions for players who are breaching protocol. They are putting peoples live’s at risk while Cavani gets a 3 match ban and £100k fine. It’s very disproportionate.
 
If the players cant control themselves absolutely, all European compition should definitely be suspended, club and country.
 
Even if they take a break, when do they restart it? Project restart was obviously very successful, but there’s no doubt footballers, like a lot of the general public, have slacked off in following guidelines. Remember when we were told that players wouldn’t be celebrating together, the end of games now you wouldn’t think there’s any risk of infection.

There’s a high chance footballers will get a three week gap to clear the outbreaks and spend it mixing with others anyway.
 
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