Coronavirus in football

I’d rather go through the rigmarole of passes/checks than grounds being forced to be empty again. I forgot how soulless football felt last season without crowds until I saw some highlights of a game the other day. Just awful.
 
I think we should have a winter break but it will be very hard to do that considering how congested next season is going to be.

And the Premier League refused to barely change anything in the calendar, fitting in PL matches a week after the World Cup. Not only will the players be burnt out, there's so little space for rescheduled games in the middle of a pandemic for the next year.
 
And the Premier League refused to barely change anything in the calendar, fitting in PL matches a week after the World Cup. Not only will the players be burnt out, there's so little space for rescheduled games in the middle of a pandemic for the next year.
It sucks. They should really cancel the League or FA Cup for the year, or both, just to help with the situation.
 
Not heard anything about this yet from the club.
It's the law now mate. Outdoor venues with a capacity of over 4,000 require an NHS Covid pass or negative lateral flow. As well as indoor venues >500 people.
 
It's the law now mate. Outdoor venues with a capacity of over 4,000 require an NHS Covid pass or negative lateral flow. As well as indoor venues >500 people.
I know it is but the club said they were getting advice from the Gov or something and would update us but haven't heard anything yet. If they were checking 75000 people there'd need to be some communication to us.
 
I know it is but the club said they were getting advice from the Gov or something and would update us but haven't heard anything yet. If they were checking 75000 people there'd need to be some communication to us.
You know what the club is like. If you're expecting to go to OT any time soon you'll need one of Covid pass/Negative LFT (taken within last 48hrs).
 
And the Premier League refused to barely change anything in the calendar, fitting in PL matches a week after the World Cup. Not only will the players be burnt out, there's so little space for rescheduled games in the middle of a pandemic for the next year.
I've "played" next season on football manager and if that's the schedule in reality then get to the semis in all three cups you'll likely be doing midweek-weekend from Christmas right up until the last league game.
 
Inevitable that they shut it down surely?
They said that last year, it won't happen.

The only reason it shut first time round was because of testing capacity. People forget we were due a full weekend of full stadium football until Arteta tested positive, and even then it was only going to be the Arsenal game called off until Callum Hudson Odoi followed suit, and even after that unaffected teams carried on training for a little while after on the basis they were resuming in a couple of weeks (see Tottenham's Amazon series).

Italy held on for aslong as possible, Milan played a game in the San Siro even after Lombardy's outbreak.

Unfortunently the return of BCD is looking very possible but it would take extreme circumstances for another shut down.
 
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I’d rather go through the rigmarole of passes/checks than grounds being forced to be empty again. I forgot how soulless football felt last season without crowds until I saw some highlights of a game the other day. Just awful.
At first I was just glad to get football back but as time went on it became really shit. I think when it really hit me was when we went to Barnsley in the cup, in a normal season that's a packed buzzing crowd.

What I don't get is the trials of limited capacity crowds in the Brighton/Chelsea pre season and early on in select EFL games worked well, I really don't see why that couldn't have carried on in the non lockdown parts of the season.
 
You know what the club is like. If you're expecting to go to OT any time soon you'll need one of Covid pass/Negative LFT (taken within last 48hrs).
That's the sensible approach and I've had mine ready since August but I can't imagine it would go down well with some and just lead to chaos when trying to get in the ground. Hopefully the club will send something out before Saturday!
 
And the Premier League refused to barely change anything in the calendar, fitting in PL matches a week after the World Cup. Not only will the players be burnt out, there's so little space for rescheduled games in the middle of a pandemic for the next year.
The winter WC is the dumbest idea FIFA has come up with to date. I expect it to be a total shit show before, during, and after.
 
That's the sensible approach and I've had mine ready since August but I can't imagine it would go down well with some and just lead to chaos when trying to get in the ground. Hopefully the club will send something out before Saturday!
Stamford Bridge have been strict with it since the start of the season.

When I went (all be it only once so far) there were no problems.
 
Inevitable that they shut it down surely?

Surely can't continue on like this. The only way out I see is restricting where players and staff go and who they interact with. They need to act like they did during the last lockdown. But that also might be too harsh and hard on their mental health.
 
Surely can't continue on like this. The only way out I see is restricting where players and staff go and who they interact with. They need to act like they did during the last lockdown. But that also might be too harsh and hard on their mental health.
Yeah I agree, seems absolutely necessary that they go behind closed doors.
 
How will behind closed doors make a difference? Do you think the players are catching it from the fans during the game?
 
Inevitable that they shut it down surely?
Nope.

This is what’s been brought in

Premier League players and club staff will need to take a lateral flow test every day to get into training grounds under new measures agreed on Tuesday to combat the coronavirus Omicron variant.

The other problem is the Pl has the minimum 14 player rule but keep postponing games for thresholds far less.
 
Yeah I agree, seems absolutely necessary that they go behind closed doors.

Closed doors might make sense for the country as a whole but I don't think it would have much of an effect on the players. The players are likely catching it from their own social lives. They need to start bunkering down.
 
Maybe this can kill off the league cup and stretch the FA cup
 
How? Shutting it down doesn’t ease the risks later. Come back, say, 1 month later and we are in the exact position as we are now with less time to reschedule
Because it’s going to get significantly worse in the next few weeks, also the most intense period of the season and games are getting called off left right and centre.
 
The players are catching it from their social lives and spreading it to each other. Behind closed doors is a stupid shout unless the country is in lockdown. So is postponing the league as it just causes a fixture pile up as you wait for the cases to drop, when they are only going up whilst society is open.

The answer to this is that you impose restrictions on player contact and have tighter testing. This has started to happen.
 
Because it’s going to get significantly worse in the next few weeks, also the most intense period of the season and games are getting called off left right and centre.
But these games wont disappear. Instead of calling off a few games a week it’ll end up in dozens being called off and being where we are now anyway. Why wouldn’t Watford v Burnley be called off after a few weeks break? Where did the risk lessen?
 
Because it’s going to get significantly worse in the next few weeks, also the most intense period of the season and games are getting called off left right and centre.
being a tad bit dramatic here. There’s been three games called off. Which I think is one less than a year ago around the same period.
 
19 players and staff at United are currently self-isolating.
 
Swear some people want the games to be off, it’s horrendous but can’t be dealt with, some are being completely dramatic with calling the whole season off
 
Swear some people want the games to be off, it’s horrendous but can’t be dealt with, some are being completely dramatic with calling the whole season off
You should have seen the thread discussing whether it should have restarted...
 
being a tad bit dramatic here. There’s been three games called off. Which I think is one less than a year ago around the same period.
UK just recorded its highest cases per day ever. In a week’s time every game will be called off because players and staff will be getting covid left and right.
 
UK just recorded its highest cases per day ever. In a week’s time every game will be called off because players and staff will be getting covid left and right.
This will happen unless they are tighter with testing and distancing in training. Which they’ve started to be so let’s see.
 
UK just recorded its highest cases per day ever. In a week’s time every game will be called off because players and staff will be getting covid left and right.
Oh ok. In that case yeah. Premier league will be probably suspended. Tomorrow they’ll probably announce a two month lay off. By then covid will have reduced, testing and distancing protocols will finally be in place and then they can start again.