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

[villa `cross the mersey]

the fact that he was an MP of any political persuasion would be irrelevant. But the whole post was - we are dealing with a medical emergency, not snow and ice.

Some idle amusing distraction is of some benefit in the current envvironment.

   should that read "enviralment" ?

[SaddVillan]

BBC article - clarification:

Elite football in Britain has been suspended until at least 3 April as a result of the spread of coronavirus.

All Blues games will proceed as scheduled.

[charlatan]

If the FA Cup got postponed at the quarter final stage they can't just hand it to whoever scored the most goals up to that point in it or hand each of the 8 teams left a meaningless symbolic cup just because they'd done well in it up to that point. It would (and will) just be cancelled for this year.

I have a book on Betfair worth £235 regardless of the winner 

[kieron]

BBC article - clarification:

Elite football in Britain has been suspended until at least 3 April as a result of the spread of coronavirus.

All Blues games will proceed as scheduled.

I'm worried about the fact that we're bracketed in as 'elite' tbh.

[RichardBatchelor]

I guess this will be the only relevant thread for a fair while to come ...

[frank black]

I guess this will be the only relevant thread for a fair while to come ...

Yep just this, the transfer links and don’t go Jack threads

[rougegorge]

National League games going ahead, but Solihull's game tonight has been postponed.

Coronavirus: National League fixtures this weekend to go ahead as planned

This is very odd as some National League teams get the same kind of attendances as League 2 sides.

So Steps 1 and 2 of the non-league pyramid proceed but then at Step 3, the Northern Premier League follows suit by playing on, whilst the Southern League and the Isthmian League postpone their matches.

So nothing is fully joined up.

[PeterWithe]

I thought this was lyrically inventive if not morally, historically or logically sound

From Facebook


Tony Xia’s a legend
He’s Villa thru and thru
So he’s saved us yet again with a nasty of dose of flu

He saw that we were struggling and he weren’t having that!
So he went down to the takeaway and ate an un cooked bat!

Tony xia he ate a bat
Ate a bat
Tony xia he ate a bat
Ate a bat
Ate it up, we’re staying up, we’ll win the fucking cup!
Tony xia he ate a bat
Ate a bat.

[BoVillan esq]

Looks like that it for this season, my guess is the European Championships will be postponed until next summer, we will get a ruling in about 10 days (about a week before suggested April commencement date) that the football season is over and will be played again starting in August, only then if possible, that covers the FA's ass in terms of legality as anybody in contention for promotion or relegation at the moment could in theory survive or be successful at this point, Liverpool being the exception, no way will it commence in April, the virus and infection rate and deaths will still be heading up at that stage, they won't be able to delay again come April because of Preseason, player contracts, loans, plus the fact the FA leaves itself open to being prosecuted by a club that then gets relegated that could claim prior to the break they had hit good form and would have stayed up, Kudos to the FA, they went and did what these dithering idiots that run us, wasn't capable of doing yesterday. 

In my opinion its done and dusted. Lets hope we can get the team and management sorted for the new season.

[ChicagoLion]

Our best chance of survival is canceling the season.
An ill wind ......,,,

[BoVillan esq]

Our best chance of survival is canceling the season.
An ill wind ......,,,

Its a sad ill wind, personally I don't think we have even come close to grasping how serious this is. In terms of football, its just football, a game, doesn't compare to the damage this will cause, its for that reason also that starting the season again in April will be impossible, example, lets say by then the rate of increase is starting to bottom out or decline slightly, we allow mass gatherings again and the figures start to climb again....The government would get slaughtered, they will never risk this in a million years and certainly not for a game of football. 

[colin69]

It won’t start again in April, absolutely no chance. But somehow the season must be finished at some point.

[Ads]

No chance it will be. Greg Clarke is expressing this view already. You can't go beyond June and the league integrity has arguably already been compromised.

[brian green]

Part of the "herd immunity" theory Johnson's advisors seem to be attempting requires mass gatherings to level out the cases into big bulges rather than sharp spikes so the return of football with spectators in attendance may not be too long coming back.

[BoVillan esq]

It won’t start again in April, absolutely no chance. But somehow the season must be finished at some point.

Apparently, not necessarily, extenuating circumstances allows for the FA to stop or cancel a season early providing there are a significant enough/amount of games left to bring into question who would go down, finish top etc, that has to be this season.