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

[PaulWinch again]

As Rob Dorsett on Sky has said, the Spurs and Everton matches must also be in doubt, if the whole squad have to self isolate for 10 days, that takes them up to the day before the Everton match, so it would not be realistic for them to play that game, having not trained for 10 days.

And that’s if they recover ok.

[Gerrin]

Take a 6-12 week break, elongate the season to the calendar year (club games at a leisurely place either side of the Euros), do the same next year and finish up that October ahead of the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022.

This would mean huge loss of tv revenue for the clubs, for that reason alone I cannot see it happening. It will always be club before country.

[CT]

Listening to SSN just now, there are loads of clubs with problems.

I think football will be stopped soon, whether it wants to or not.

[eamonn]

Take a 6-12 week break, elongate the season to the calendar year (club games at a leisurely place either side of the Euros), do the same next year and finish up that October ahead of the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022.

And then what? Start the following season in January?

Something like Tom mentioned, a stretched season to get back to the Aug-May cycle or else a shortened Jan-Jun 2023 season with no cups.

[Matt C]

The Euros surely won’t happen. It’s unfortunate but it seems the obvious sacrifice and preserves domestic leagues and those all important revenues/controlling TV companies etc.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Take a 6-12 week break, elongate the season to the calendar year (club games at a leisurely place either side of the Euros), do the same next year and finish up that October ahead of the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022.

And then what? Start the following season in January?

Something like Tom mentioned, a stretched season to get back to the Aug-May cycle or else a shortened Jan-Jun 2023 season with no cups.

Interesting ideas.

Personally, I think the (unnecessary) rush to reschedule the Euros for the same dates in 2021 without any room for flexibility, has made things much more difficult.

[OCD]

There's doubts about whether even the Olympics will go ahead so I think the Euro's must be at a very high risk of being cancelled unless you have the Euro's and the World Cup next year with only a few months apart.

[N'ZMAV]

I think knocking the FA and League cup's on the head may have been a good idea for this season in hindsight.

[ktvillan]

The Euros surely won’t happen. It’s unfortunate but it seems the obvious sacrifice and preserves domestic leagues and those all important revenues/controlling TV companies etc.

The Sweaties will be fuming, donkey's years to reach a finals and looks like it will get cancelled.

[Pat Mustard]

I said at the time that last season was the one that should have been cancelled, as the knock on effect would otherwise be felt this year and next. If we had been able to start this season in August as normal then we could have accommodated some degree of disruption this season, but now there is no room. It would have meant the loss of one season, but now we will have three compromised ones.

I often wonder what decision would have been made last year if it had been Man City who were 25 points clear rather than Liverpool.

[N'ZMAV]

I agree that all football should probably stop now - the reason I said to knock the cups on the head at the start of the season would have been to reduce matches from the start

[Legion]

Club statement update:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2021/january/Club-Statement-FA-Cup-tie/

[Dave P]

The Euros surely won’t happen. It’s unfortunate but it seems the obvious sacrifice and preserves domestic leagues and those all important revenues/controlling TV companies etc.

The Sweaties will be fuming, donkey's years to reach a finals and looks like it will get cancelled.

I’ll be fuming. I have tickets for the final.

[purpletrousers]

If football is so important to the mental health of the nation, why haven’t the PL secured vaccines to take away the fear of cancellation?

I don't think that would be to well received amongst frontline NHS staff atm.

Just imagine (righty) the outrage

Yep. It’s horrific for my colleagues working on Covid ward knowing the risk. Knowing we’ve lost multiple colleagues, just. Utterly amazed people having deliberate contact with Covid not prioritised first. A consequence of the care home cock up last time. Utter disgrace. Would have saved lives. Won’t say more. 

[frank black]

Be interesting watching the kids play tomorrow.