Football league suspended until April 4th

[Bluegoose]

Very generous of you, what time should we arrive?

Around 3pm will be fine, don't forget to leave time at the airport for health checks.

 

[kentblues]

I suspect the focus will soon shift to ensuring next season can start as near the normal time as possible and be impacted either not at all or as little as possible. There has to be a pre-season break for the players, a transfer window, contracts cease end of June so new contracts offered & players signed with clubs knowing what division they are in.

It will soon become clear as we head into May that even if the season could be completed by clubs with depleted squads playing behind closed doors all this will do is push back the start of next season. Just imagine that, the costs of games, no supporters and then next years season start and income being pushed back as a result. Not going to happen. Even if those games, despite this, were played then players may not have trained for a number of weeks- they wont be match fit, there will be injuries..

At the same time the EFL will want to show they are doing all they possibly can to complete the season- so it will be a death by a thousand cuts. April 4 will become mid April, will come end of April will become early May and the point of no return..after all if they called a halt in mid-April and miraculously this went away the the finger of blame, and legal blame, will be ready to be pointed..

 

[bluesfansince1952]

If what has happened in China and Italy is a guide there is no chance of things improving in the near future, and, I suspect there will be no improvement for at least three months.
Once things are shut down it is difficult to re-open until the situation improves, and, who knows when that will be.
By the time we return to 'normal' the football world may be a very different place.

 

[kentblues]

Will the club survive this.....not only are we millions in debt and owing the hrmc and players,but now effectively have no income coming in .How and on what basis can season ticket renewals be sent?
Health is always no 1 but when this crisis is over.
Football as a whole has some big changes coming .Just hope the Premiership don't use this as an excuse to Tailor the game to their selfish needs.
Just hope when it returns we still have a club

I guess what you want in order of helpfulness is;
1. A billionaire/multi-millionaire chairman for whom money is expendable and hence it doesn't matter how long this lasts.
2. No billionaire/multi-millionaire chairman but a healthy bank balance or at least reasonably good finances to cushion the blow
3. An overriding reason why a chairman is not a billionaire/multi-millionaire needs or wants to keep the club afloat and he has the ability to do so.
4. But without the obvious ability but he we will to try very hard and may well succeed
5. No billionaire/multi-millionaire chairman and no overriding desire or reason to keep the club afloat at great personal cost.

A meaningful number of L1 & L2 clubs are regrettably 5s. We are 4. There might be a number of these. There might also be a reasonable number of 3s, two or three 2s and one or two 1s...

What will happen is lots of players will be paid late/not at all. HMRC will be deferring tax liabilities. This might delay the inevitable in one or two cases..

 

[IamJack]

The part I’m finding most interesting in all of this now is

The players have been paid. He would not of paid the players had he NOT had the money to pay HMRC first.

As paying the players also makes more tax liabilities to be paid.

 

[Thorper]

I heard today on the radio that The Premier League have over £1.5 Billion sitting in the bank, just growing every day, due to their cut in Sky Sports money and sponsorships. etc, etc. The football expert rightly said that now would be the perfect time to throw a lifeline down to League One and Two clubs. He said them giving £10 Million or so would be small change for them, as they earn that in less than a month. But it would be a massive help to clubs in peril financially, to help them pay wages and expenses during the current crisis. The Premier League may be the cream, but they still need the Leagues below to make the Premier League relegation battles interesting and relevant. Most football pundits and fans have been saying for years that too much money stays at the top, and more should filter down. Now's the time.

But those kind of policies are not what we voted Boris in for....

 

[Thorper]

Wonder if Ron will now release the season card prices to gather up some money.

Or issue refunds if the rest of the season is cancelled? (Not holding my breath)

 

[Ricey]

Or issue refunds if the rest of the season is cancelled? (Not holding my breath)

Did anything get sorted with the loss of the Bury fixture?

 

[Fairport]

Do the Premier League actually take notice of what the FA say? I would have thought it would be the other way round.

You are right, the PL seem to run the whole football show. No replays in FA cup ties is just one example and yet that is an FA competition not a premier league event. The FA are almost powerless in the face of the Premier League dinosaur.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

Did anything get sorted with the loss of the Bury fixture?

No, and if the season is scrapped what about Bury who were listed at the start? Could they claim FL place back?
So many ifs

 

[Ricey]

Didn’t even think about that one.

 

[Joolz]

I have no idea if this has been considered, but I think a sensible solution would be to complete this season ASAP after things return to normal (assuming they do), and curtail the 2020-2021 season by only playing half the league fixtures. So you'll only play each team once, with half your games being at home. This is after all how the Six Nations operates already.

 

[ROKERITE]

I have no idea if this has been considered, but I think a sensible solution would be to complete this season ASAP after things return to normal (assuming they do), and curtail the 2020-2021 season by only playing half the league fixtures. So you'll only play each team once, with half your games being at home. This is after all how the Six Nations operates already.

It has been mentioned along with many other possible "solutions". I think it is the most sensible one. It could be July or later before football recommences and there are lots of problems to sort out. Players contracts ending, lack of fitness and match fitness being just three. However the season is so close to the end that not to allow its completion seems unjust.
I agree that a short 2020-21 season is also advisable if necessary though there'd have to be pot luck on the twenty-third match as you can't halve twenty-three.

 

[RHB]

Didn’t even think about that one.

That would only be up for consideration if Bury could prove they were a fit and proper club to continue. They couldn't prove that before the start of the season so they were toast. With their Chairman they had no chance and he makes Ron look positively saintly.

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

The part I’m finding most interesting in all of this now is

The players have been paid. He would not of paid the players had he NOT had the money to pay HMRC first.

As paying the players also makes more tax liabilities to be paid.

Have they, haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere...

 

[Medway Blue]

I have no idea if this has been considered, but I think a sensible solution would be to complete this season ASAP after things return to normal (assuming they do), and curtail the 2020-2021 season by only playing half the league fixtures. So you'll only play each team once, with half your games being at home. This is after all how the Six Nations operates already.

So halve the match day income for clubs over the course of a season? Yep, that’ll go down well.

There is no easy solution to this that will please everyone equally. But there will come a time when attention will need to turn towards making sure that next season can go off with little more than a delay to its start. Rightly or wrongly, cancelling and voiding this season will be the most consistent and least unfair/contentious way to do so.

 

[kentblues]

It has been mentioned along with many other possible "solutions". I think it is the most sensible one. It could be July or later before football recommences and there are lots of problems to sort out. Players contracts ending, lack of fitness and match fitness being just three. However the season is so close to the end that not to allow its completion seems unjust.
I agree that a short 2020-21 season is also advisable if necessary though there'd have to be pot luck on the twenty-third match as you can't halve twenty-three.

The point is that the football could re-commence in time for the 20/21 season to proceed as normal. To compromise the 20/21 season just to try and complete an already compromised 19/20 season wouldn't make sense for all sorts of reasons. Reading the Times report of the meeting (FA, Prem, EFL) you can't help but conclude there is very little chance of this season completing and they know it- its all about buying time to decide how to handle the consequences of that.

 

[IamJack]

Players have definitely been paid yesterday

 

[Medway Blue]

The point is that the football could re-commence in time for the 20/21 season to proceed as normal. To compromise the 20/21 season just to try and complete an already compromised 19/20 season wouldn't make sense for all sorts of reasons. Reading the Times report of the meeting (FA, Prem, EFL) you can't help but conclude there is very little chance of this season completing and they know it- its all about buying time to decide how to handle the consequences of that.

Exactly this.

Attention will need to turn to making sure 20/21 is able to go ahead as normal if there is the opportunity to do so.

Whilst you can say “club X probably has title/promotion/relegation wrapped up”, nothing is mathematically confirmed yet. So the fairest and most consistent thing to do will be to void the season and have every club start next season in the same division that they started 19/20 in. As if 19/20 never happened. Obviously I am aware that it will favour our club should we survive financially until then, but I can’t see any other solution. No solution will ever be ideal but if anybody thinks football will be played before or during the predicted peak of this thing in June/July then they are mental. The legal and sporting ramifications of awarding promotions/relegations based on current positions if the rest of the season were to be cancelled now are surely far larger than if the season was voided. Neither solution is fair but one is less unfair than the other.

 

[kentblues]

Players have definitely been paid yesterday

Well it would be nice to have that verified, or for you to share how you know.