Coronavirus in football

How the fecking feck is injuries and AFCON participation a genuine consideration for a game being postponed?


Absolutely bonkers. So they had enough players available to play vs Watford yesterday but can't field a team 2 days later.
 
Absolutely bonkers. So they had enough players available to play vs Watford yesterday but can't field a team 2 days later.

I don't understand how some teams are being told to get on with it and other teams are not.
 
I don't understand how some teams are being told to get on with it and other teams are not.
It's the difference between the F.A. and PL. F.A. said the games have to be played and that you have to find enough players to put a team out. PL are being taken for mugs.
 
Just saw this on reddit


LFT false positivity is 1 in 1000. It’s still very low.

The odds of this happening as Klopp says is 0.001~10. You’d have to be insane to believe him.

There has to be an investigation
 
Not one postponement in 32 FA cup games this weekend just shows how little clubs care about the FA Cup now. They'll put out scratch sides just to fulfil a fixture. But that can't happen on a mid table premier league fame with nothing to play for.
 
Not one postponement in 32 FA cup games this weekend just shows how little clubs care about the FA Cup now. They'll put out scratch sides just to fulfil a fixture. But that can't happen on a mid table premier league fame with nothing to play for.

It's because there are different rules for the FA Cup. If the same postponement rules were in place, I'm sure some clubs would have tried to postpone their games in they could.

Similar rules to the FA Cup should exist in the PL. These Premier League clubs generally pay 30-50 people to play football full time, they should be playing them when needed. Obviously if there are outbreak issues closer to the game than can be reasonably contained, then player safety has to come first, but if it's just injured/absent 'first team' players missing then tough luck.
 
The Government need to contact Liverpool for advice.

‘‘Covid outbreak’’ a handful of days ago, turns out it was a load of false positives. How convenient.

This is a fecking joke. How can you say this season has been fair when things like this have happened?
 
How the fecking feck is injuries and AFCON participation a genuine consideration for a game being postponed?


:lol: :lol: Mad. I understand covid / injuries but the AFCON thing is bullshit.
 
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Just saw this on reddit


LFT false positivity is 1 in 1000. It’s still very low.

The odds of this happening as Klopp says is 0.001~10. You’d have to be insane to believe him.

There has to be an investigation

Zero doubt at all that Liverpool made up those results. Nothing will be done of course.
 
:lol: :lol: Mad. I understand covid / injuries but the AFCON thing is bullshit.

Injuries and Afcon should not be taken into account at all. There is a squad of 25 players + youth teamers ffs. Seems like PL are making it up as they go along (shock I know).
It should be as simple as "if x number of your 25 player squad has covid we'll call it off"
Then Liverpool can manufacture the requisite number of false positives :)
 
This is a fecking joke. How can you say this season has been fair when things like this have happened?
Yep. Now the players who tested…positive…would have been rotated for the cup game anyway.
 
Injuries and Afcon should not be taken into account at all. There is a squad of 25 players + youth teamers ffs. Seems like PL are making it up as they go along (shock I know).
It should be as simple as "if x number of your 25 player squad has covid we'll call it off"
Then Liverpool can manufacture the requisite number of false positives :)

I think injuries is still a dodgy area but when it's combined with Covid it makes more sense. AFCON is different, you know exactly which players may be called up or who has a very high chance of being called up. You don't know really at all who's going to be injured and when. You can also have freak injury crises.
 
I think injuries is still a dodgy area but when it's combined with Covid it makes more sense. AFCON is different, you know exactly which players may be called up or who has a very high chance of being called up. You don't know really at all who's going to be injured and when. You can also have freak injury crises.

But has there ever been precedent for an injury crisis leading to a game being called off? You could have a situation with 3 Covid cases and 12 out injured but I don't think that should mean the game is postponed.
 
But has there ever been precedent for an injury crisis leading to a game being called off? You could have a situation with 3 Covid cases and 12 out injured but I don't think that should mean the game is postponed.

I’m not sure. I do think in normal circumstances an injury crisis wouldn’t be of consideration to postpone a game but when it’s combined with covid I think it gets tricky.
 
I’m not sure. I do think in normal circumstances an injury crisis wouldn’t be of consideration to postpone a game but when it’s combined with covid I think it gets tricky.

I think they should be treated as very different issues.

Covid is a virus that can spread, so additional precautions need to be put in place and I can understand the need for postponements to protect others.

Injuries are bad luck, they aren't infectious, these teams pay 30-50+ people to play football full time and they need to use them.

Quite frankly, who is verifying these injuries? I think it's a murky situation and don't doubt that 50/50 (or better) players have been deemed 'injured' in the last couple of months because it will tip the scale into avoiding a game. If I was a manager I would absolutely be doing that if it benefitted me, but the option to do so shouldn't be there.
 
I think they should be treated as very different issues.

Covid is a virus that can spread, so additional precautions need to be put in place and I can understand the need for postponements to protect others.

Injuries are bad luck, they aren't infectious, these teams pay 30-50+ people to play football full time and they need to use them.

Quite frankly, who is verifying these injuries? I think it's a murky situation and don't doubt that 50/50 (or better) players have been deemed 'injured' in the last couple of months because it will tip the scale into avoiding a game. If I was a manager I would absolutely be doing that if it benefitted me, but the option to do so shouldn't be there.

Covid can be a case of bad luck too. You could do everything you possibly can to avoid it and still get it.

The rule currently is -

"Where a club cannot field 13 outfield players and a goalkeeper either from its squad list or its appropriately experienced Under-21 players, the match will be postponed." which is not transparent enough or 'fixed' for me in it's ruling and why AFCON / injury reasons can appear farcical. I kind of agree now with some posters that it should be x amount of covid cases and you don't play otherwise you have to suck it up and go for it.

The Leicester case is interesting because it means a) They have picked up additional covid cases / injuries in the cup game on the weekend or b) they didn't mind playing with a weakened side then aka didn't mind going out but want to maximise their PL point tally. You'd assume a) otherwise the PL would have told them to feck off, I assume anyway.
 
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Covid can be a case of bad luck too. You could do everything you possibly can to avoid it and still get it.

The rule currently is -

"Where a club cannot field 13 outfield players and a goalkeeper either from its squad list or its appropriately experienced Under-21 players, the match will be postponed." which is not transparent enough or 'fixed' for me in it's ruling and why AFCON / injury reasons can appear farcical. I kind of agree now with some posters that it should be x amount of covid cases and you don't play otherwise you have to suck it up and go for it.

The Leicester case is interesting because it means a) They have picked up additional covid cases / injuries in the cup game on the weekend or b) they didn't mind playing with a weakened side then aka didn't mind going out but want to maximise their PL point tally. You'd assume a) otherwise the PL would have told them to feck off, I assume.

I don't think it's 'A' at all. Does the Premier League have different rules to the FA Cup?
 
I don't think it's 'A' at all. Does the Premier League have different rules to the FA Cup?

yes. The FA cup states anyone can play. The PL ruling states only appropriately experienced academy players. So in the FA Cup you’re essentially forced to play no matter what.
 
What's the criteria with keepers? I'm getting nightmares over the prospect of Bettinelli facing City or Spurs (we're Kepa testing positive away from that happening).
 
What's the criteria with keepers? I'm getting nightmares over the prospect of Bettinelli facing City or Spurs (we're Kepa testing positive away from that happening).
In AFCON if your keepers both have covid you play with an outfield player in nets. Introduce that to the PL and you’ll suddenly find 3rd and 4th choices
 
What's the criteria with keepers? I'm getting nightmares over the prospect of Bettinelli facing City or Spurs (we're Kepa testing positive away from that happening).

Pretty sure if you have him and a suitable keeper to be a sub then you'd have to play.
 
I’m not sure. I do think in normal circumstances an injury crisis wouldn’t be of consideration to postpone a game but when it’s combined with covid I think it gets tricky.

I can't recall any instance where an injury crisis has meant a game is called off.
There was one year that Spurs would get top4 ahead of Arsenal if they won their final game (against West Ham I think) and a load of their players were ill with food poisoning from a hotel lasagne - and that still wasn't called off.
I get covid is an issue, but it doesn't seem right at the moment.
 
Covid can be a case of bad luck too. You could do everything you possibly can to avoid it and still get it.

The rule currently is -

"Where a club cannot field 13 outfield players and a goalkeeper either from its squad list or its appropriately experienced Under-21 players, the match will be postponed." which is not transparent enough or 'fixed' for me in it's ruling and why AFCON / injury reasons can appear farcical. I kind of agree now with some posters that it should be x amount of covid cases and you don't play otherwise you have to suck it up and go for it.

The Leicester case is interesting because it means a) They have picked up additional covid cases / injuries in the cup game on the weekend or b) they didn't mind playing with a weakened side then aka didn't mind going out but want to maximise their PL point tally. You'd assume a) otherwise the PL would have told them to feck off, I assume anyway.

Oh it usually is bad luck, not suggesting that catching Covid means there is necessarily blame. It was more than injuries are just a 'shit happens' thing, they have always happened, and if you have to go without several key players at the same time due to coincidence of injuries then it's bad luck but you have to deal with it. Whilst the same 'bad luck' can happen with Covid, it's fair enough that it is treated a bit differently given it is an infectious disease, so if there is an outbreak within 24 hours of a game, then it's fair enough to postpone because to do otherwise could unnecessarily put people at risk.

I also reckon that some of the players who are apparently injured for Leicester and are part of the reason for the game being called off might have played if the game actually went ahead.
 
AFCON and injuries should not be taken into account by themselves, but they do play a part in terms of the number of players teams have left.

And if that number further decreases because of Covid cases and teams have less players than required by the rules, then they shouldn't play. So it's mainly because of Covid, but the AFCON and injuries have played some part.

I don't see a problem here.
 
Alphonso Davies will be sidelined for a couple of weeks because he showed signs of slight Myocarditis after his Covid infection.
 
Burnley v Leicester postponed.

Burnley don’t have enough outfield players they say due to Covid and injuries.

In other words, we’ve got 25m to spend we need more time to find a player or two to replace Wood.
 
Who actually has Covid apart from Odegaard? Absolutely taking the piss if it gets postponed because of AFCON and a couple of injuries (and Xhaka being Xhaka).
 
Who actually has Covid apart from Odegaard? Absolutely taking the piss if it gets postponed because of AFCON and a couple of injuries (and Xhaka being Xhaka).
They just loaned out two senior squad members as well!
 
Why are Spurs and Pool fans getting so annoyed with this proposal? They used the same rules to postpone their games, Arsenal are within their rights to request postponing this game as they have only 12 outfield players available. Rules should be consistent for all or scrap this rule and ask everyone to play youth players.
 
Why are Spurs and Pool fans getting so annoyed with this proposal? They used the same rules to postpone their games, Arsenal are within their rights to request postponing this game as they have only 12 outfield players available. Rules should be consistent for all or scrap this rule and ask everyone to play youth players.
Just because they did the same doesnt mean that you should abuse this rigged system anyways, kind of hypocritical of your club to do the same after throwing a fit when Liverpool got their way last week.
This is absolutely not acceptable...many are reporting that you have only one covid case, injuries and some players are at Afcon. Since when did we ever postpone football matches because of injuries, players on international duty and because of players suspended as well?!
Other clubs had up to 5-7 covid cases and players injured yet still got their requests rejected.
Just field some of your youth its just spurs anyways.
 
Why are Spurs and Pool fans getting so annoyed with this proposal? They used the same rules to postpone their games, Arsenal are within their rights to request postponing this game as they have only 12 outfield players available. Rules should be consistent for all or scrap this rule and ask everyone to play youth players.

We were forced to play Brentford with 7 first team players out due to covid before the protocol was introduced, so I'm cool with it.
 
One Covid case. So if Xhaka didnt get sent off last night they'd have played? And he'll be allowed to play when it is played now? Makes sense.