How much will Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact Aston Villa's season?

[aldridgeboy]

Yes that would be how I read it as well. I’ve read what he’s said as opposed to heard it, but he comes across well.

I wonder at what point they realise that this obsession to get this season finished will really mess up next season too.

[Mister E]

Playing the games tournament style in empty and neutral stadia will involve huge amounts of testing: it's not as if 1 test per participant will do it - they'll have to be continuously testing people to ensure the 'bubble' in which all this goes on remains safe.
The mere description of what is being touted smacks of the same complacency that Johnson had at the start of all of this.

[David_Nab]

So if I get it right currently
PL want to play NV BCD
Championship want to play BCD at own grounds
L1/L2 can't afford to play with no fans
National leagues suspended and they trying to work out what to do

So basically there is no consistency between the leagues

As for teams other than bottom 6 voting to not play , can't see it myself as for most of them they need the TV cash.Spurs have just lost the Joshua fight and NFL games estimated to cost them millions in revenue.The league look like allowing more subs and relaxing requirements to play strong teams.Teams with nothing to play for will turn up jog around and see out their contract to play games.

[DB]

Players, management, medical staff and all others involved in getting a PL match on at neutral venues or otherwise, cannot be guaranteed at this time in this country. I cannot believe they are seriously planning this with so many variables. Nothing can be decided yet and Sunday’s plan won’t change the number of people still at risk.

[PaulWinch again]

If ignore the grubbiness of it all for a moment, I’d be absolutely staggered if relegation doesn’t get scrapped. They’re talking about fundamental changes to the competition, which make it completely imbalanced. There would be massive lawsuits from any club who was relegated and they’d probably win.

[cdbearsfan]

Why would you ignore the grubbiness? That's the entire motivation. The clubs at the top will bully the less fortunate to get their own way.

[OCD]

It feels like ongoing negotiations. I would have thought the compromise would be to finish the season, to 'lift the spirits of the nation' but remove the threat of relegation. You then shift the issue to what you're going to do about promotion to next year's competition.

Also a question of whether you start next season in neutral venues and how that would work. The quicker they can finalise the current questions, the more time they have to figure out how next season will work.

[ChicagoLion]

Purslow quoted as saying they are being asked to inflict “a £200 million catastrophe on themselves”
I think you can be sure we are not going along with it.
 

[Rory]

If ignore the grubbiness of it all for a moment, I’d be absolutely staggered if relegation doesn’t get scrapped. They’re talking about fundamental changes to the competition, which make it completely imbalanced. There would be massive lawsuits from any club who was relegated and they’d probably win.

That's the crux for me, as well. The whole season up until now has been played with the understanding that each team will face the other 19, home and away, under pre-agreed conditions and over a certain period of time. The variables were pre-acknowledged.

Never mind whether the remaining fixtures would be legitimate; how can the season from August-March be considered valid when its entire context has gone out the window? It could legitimately be argued that plans and decisions were made by all clubs prior to the lockdown that affected results and performance (transfers, tactics, team selections) which have been removed from the context in which they were made.

It is nobody's fault that the landscape has changed, but the extent to which it has removes legitimacy not only from the remaining games but from the whole season up until now, in my opinion.

The determination of the governing bodies to resume under any circumstances shows how little they understand - or if they do understand, how little they value - the nuances of the game. Resuming the season with any significant modifications to how it began betrays a lack of understanding of team sports, individual psychology and the unpredictable nature of the interaction of variables that makes any sport worthwhile. It isn't just a fixture written on paper; you can't just dramatically alter the environment and expect continuity of performance and results.

If the PL were baking a cake, this isn't only an adjustment in timings but also ingredients. The end result being that it isn't going to be the same fucking cake you set out to make.

And in case Brassneck magically reappears: Yes, I want Villa to stay up; yes, I would find it hilarious if Liverpool were denied the title and Leeds denied promotion (don't give a shit about WBA). But to claim two different sets of results reached within hugely different contexts can be consolidated into one fair and coherent whole is bollocks, regardless of its victims and beneficiaries.

[David_Nab]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/06/premier-league-ban-team-celebrations-shirt-swapping-spitting/

No fans and no team celebrations ..brilliant viewing this will be

[Steve67]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/06/premier-league-ban-team-celebrations-shirt-swapping-spitting/

No fans and no team celebrations ..brilliant viewing this will be

But mugging each other at corner kicks will still continue to be ignored by referee's, but allowed to happen non the same.

[LeeB]

I'd rather watch two kids playing FIFA

[David_Nab]

What is the punishment for team celebrating ? Yellow cards ? Grealish bends one into top corner in 9th minute to take us out of the drop zone McGinn ( on a booking)  runs up to him ,gets a 2nd yellow and is off?

Smith is jumping on touchline with Terry ..banned to the stands ? A fine

[paul_e]

That's all well and good but how will that ban be enforced? Bookings seems obvious but how does giving someone a yellow card for hugging their mate improve safety? Yellow cards for going into the crowd or removing your shirt have been common for years and yet people still do it, yellow cards for arguing with the ref, whilst not as common as they should be, haven't deterred players from doing that either.

From earlier I agree with the posts saying that ensuring next season goes ahead is much more important than trying to finish this, that's been my view all along and it's why I think the idea of finishing this season in the Autumn is such a poor one.

If this season isn't completed then maybe some clubs get into trouble, which would be terrible but if we lose a full season I can see a huge chunk of championship, league 1 and league 2 clubs going to the wall, and probably a few from the prem, that would be, in my opinion, irreparable damage to the game in this country.

[PaulWinch again]

Why would you ignore the grubbiness? That's the entire motivation. The clubs at the top will bully the less fortunate to get their own way.

I was talking more generally, in that my default position is that it shouldn’t restart at this time because it’s abhorrent but even if I park that it’s still fucking stupid.