Steps 3-7 of the football pyramid were expunged a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday (22nd April 2020), The National League cancelled all remaining fixtures to end Steps 1 and 2’s season. But, can football really return before 2021 with the current pandemic?
With no feasible end in sight and no vaccine looking like being available to combat Covid-19 for some time yet, football with supporters present cannot go ahead until fully safe to do so. The beautiful game without supporters is well, not beautiful at all and quite frankly, pointless! However, people’s health is of main priority. Unless games are going to be played ‘behind closed doors’ then football will be a long time off resuming, so is 2021 a very real possibility?
Quite simply the answer has got to be, yes! Football stadiums would be a hot bed for a virus to spread, and ‘social distancing’ would not be a viable thing to do. A vaccine would have to be found first before a congregation of supporters would be allowed inside stadiums to watch there beloved football team.
Testing every supporter before they enter the stadiums would be logistically and financially a nightmare for football clubs. It just wouldn’t work. So viably everyone entering the stadium would have to be clear of Corona Virus for it to be a safe place for people to watch a game.
The 2020/2021 season is normally due to get underway in August, but it would be surprising with the current way things are, if that was a realistic timescale for things to begin again.
Financially if the next footballing season was to begin in 2021, how many of the lower league teams in both the football league and non-league would be able to survive financially with out going bust? How would players’ contracts work? How would the football season scheduling be done?
It is a sad state of world affairs at the moment but lowering the death toll is the main priority above any sporting importance. Football will eventually return, that needs to be with football fans present! 2021 is a very realistic time frame, 9 months without the game everyone loves. How horrible would that be!
What are your thoughts on when football will return and what is the safest way to do so? Leave your comments below.
JJ O'Donnell 
I see and hear a lot about “when will the Premier League start?” or “when will La Liga/Serie A/The Bundesliga start?” and how it’ll be ok to play games behind closed doors as the games can be streamed so that people can watch them. That may be the case but, do people seriously think that people will abide by the rules and just sit at home to watch the games (if that rule was still in place)? In my view, you’ll still get people trying to congregate outside stadiums or meeting up at other peoples houses to watch games which defeats the object.
But, more importantly, what about those clubs beyond the elite leagues? The Gateshead’s of this world? Can these clubs afford to start up again without a regular income stream from gate receipts and without any major revenue from television deals? We’ve already lost Rhyl FC and this is likely to be the very tip of what could turn out to be a massive iceberg.
This is a very worrying time for football clubs across the world. By now, they should be preparing for playoffs or for the following season, knowing which league they’ll be in, but now, everything is in limbo. The opportunity to attract sponsors will be few and far between and the prospect of that glamorous friendly to boost a clubs coffers is just a pipe dream. But not only that, there’s the players too. Many will be out of contract soon and then what? No club will be in a position to offer contracts to players as long as everything is still up in the air.
I really don’t know the answer to this. This is an unprecedented situation and my only hope is that as many clubs as possible come out the other end of this relatively unscathed to fight another day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with much of what Michael has written, particularly his concerns about players at our level. Hitting the pause button on this season indefinitely was my preferred choice and if clubs at our level, and the bottom of the professional game, had arrangements in place to furlough players then I really think this could have worked, though obviously in National League North there are part time clubs who may have less formal player contract agreements, just me speculating.
It all depends on the individual club but if, as you mention is likely and I agree with, we don’t see football return until some point in 2021, we’ll no doubt, very sadly, lose players from the game at our level as they seek alternative employment and may not return to football.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the professional game in England shrinks too; it’s much larger than in any other country but many businesses and individuals who put time and money into running professional clubs will struggle to recover as well.
I love football and love my club but it’s very well documented that the moves at the top of the game to try and finish leagues as soon as possible are driven by finance and advertising, I think most fans are accepting of the current situation, and to even consider a return to staging matches at this present time suggests an it must be the only option to stave off a complete financial collapse in football. Even if you exclude fans, I don’t see how even the most stringent player and staff arrangements can be completely safe at present, it’s surely not worth the risk.
Personally, I’ll be over the moon when it’s back but I have urgent desire to see it return behind closed doors, for me it’s not an, “at any cost” issue.
Concerned right now for you guys, the players, staff and, dare I say it, even owners of clubs. It seems at Gateshead, all aforementioned, have put some time in to reach out to fans but I hope you’re all similarly keeping safe and managing to stay positive at this most uncertain and difficult time.
Still, on the bright side, we’ve got the perfect ground for social distancing of fans if required.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Obviously my comment should say I don’t have an urgent desire to see football return. Typo, sorry.
LikeLike