Football and the Coronavirus Soccer

[Crabtree]

The Leicester vs Tottenham game goes ahead despite both clubs asking for a postponement due to rising covid cases within both clubs.

This has now been postponed.

I tend to agree with the Brentford manager who wants this weekend's game matches and Carabao Cup midweek games all to be postponed so the clubs can try "break the chain" which has emerged.

 

[Best]

Manchester United has confirmed that its Premier League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion, scheduled for Saturday, has been cancelled due to COVID 19.

 

[Dylan]

Southampton vs Brentford, Watford vs Crystal Palace and West Ham United vs Norwich City on Saturday have all been postponed due to Covid-19.

Sunday's game between Everton and Leicester has also been postponed.

 

[David76]

This has now been postponed.

I tend to agree with the Brentford manager who wants this weekend's game matches and Carabao Cup midweek games all to be postponed so the clubs can try "break the chain" which has emerged.

Manchester United has confirmed that its Premier League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion, scheduled for Saturday, has been cancelled due to COVID 19.

Southampton vs Brentford, Watford vs Crystal Palace and West Ham United vs Norwich City on Saturday have all been postponed due to Covid-19.

Sunday's game between Everton and Leicester has also been postponed.

This is ridiculous. I tend to agree with Brentford's manager that they should just postpone all the weekend games and the cup games in midweek.

 

[Snoops]

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he "doesn't see the massive benefit" of stopping the Premier League season in response to rising Covid-19 cases, but feels there needs to be a rethink of the league and cup schedule.

Jurgen Klopp isn't convinced a break to the Premier League amid the ongoing breakouts of coronavirus several clubs are experiencing would be of 'massive benefit'.

While Klopp doesn't have the answers as to how to solve the problem of matches needing to be played but not at a risk to people's health, he doesn't agree with Frank's solution.

'We are really concerned about the other stuff around the world, so far football kept it pretty much outside with the testing regimes, the massive disciplinary things for the boys did really well, but this time it is really difficult,' Klopp said after Liverpool's win.

'It was not cool to get the information this morning the boys were not available but knowing they are all vaccinated means they will be fine after however many days they isolate. Players' and people's welfare is the most important thing at the moment.

'I know Thomas Frank said he thinks it would be the right thing to stop the league, I don't see the massive benefit as we come back and the virus is still the same.

'We hope we can play and hope Tottenham can play (on Sunday) but then we play Shrewsbury, the vaccination rate in the Football League is pretty low.

'It is pretty unlikely when you have it once it stays with three players, maybe another three or four, then you have 13 players available to play the 26th and 28th and that is impossible.

'Stopping the league is probably not the right thing but with the schedule we have to be more flexible. We can talk about cup competitions, do we really need to play two semi-finals, play replays, all these sorts of things.'

I thought the comments by Klopp were quite reasonable. He isn't against a break per se but he doesn't see 100% the benefit of it. Simply a "break" won't do much, if done so they need some sort of concept accompanying it. As in, force all the players into a bubble, do a two weeks training camp, make vaccination/booster compulsory in order to play (putting aside how legal/realistic these measures would be) and then restart. Just no games but otherwise business as usual (within the club as well as within their private lives) most likely won't have an impact whatsoever except for the fact that it'll probably be other clubs with half the squad in quarantine than now.

Also, the question needs to be asked, what exactly is the main aim of a break? To get the situation regarding infections under control or to create a "fairer competitive" situation. Because I can relate to the latter aspect but I don't see how you can guarantee a fairer baseline with a break because you might run into the same situation just a couple of weeks later and you can't just declare breaks all the time.

 

[Tom]

 https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1472645380160512001

 

[David76]

The majority of Premier League clubs want to continue playing throughout the festive period despite a spate of recent postponements due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Premier League club executives staged a virtual meeting via Zoom on Monday after the weekend's fixture list had been decimated by several outbreaks of COVID-19.

Very surprised by this. Sounds like the broadcasters got their wish. Limp through the lucrative Christmas period games with depleted squads and last-minute cancellations and then sack the whole thing off for a few weeks in January.

 

[Mouth]

The first casualties of Boxing Day - Liverpool vs Leeds and Wolves vs Watford have both been postponed due to COVID-19.

 

[Tom]

Everton vs Newcastle on December 30 has been called off due to a combination of covid cases and injuries leaving Newcastle unable to fulfil the fixture.

 

[Legion]

Ousmane Dembele, Gavi and Samuel Umtiti have tested positive for covid-19 today and will miss Barcelona's weekend trip to Mallorca along with Clement Lenglet, Dani Alves, Jordi Alba and Alejandro Balde who tested positive earlier in the week.