Just an update really. Notwithstanding there is an outbreak of the virus in the city, eight Aberdeen players decided to take themselves off to a city centre bar for a session. Celtic's Boli Bolingoli meanwhile chose to break quarantine, bugger off to Spain for a few days, keep his mouth shut and play against Kilmarnock. And now we hear that a Barcelona player has tested positive for the virus.

This at a time when there is very little football being played. I fail to see how a league season starting on 12 September won't quickly descend into chaos. And this without fans in attendance. As I have said above I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see how the upcoming season is going to work.

Blimey!!!!!!!
I agree with you
In this day and age we are.beset with another pandemic....itdoesntapplytomeitis
The only known cure is basic social skills,. And it costs NOTHING

Stan A. Einstein wrote:Just an update really. Notwithstanding there is an outbreak of the virus in the city, eight Aberdeen players decided to take themselves off to a city centre bar for a session. Celtic's Boli Bolingoli meanwhile chose to break quarantine, bugger off to Spain for a few days, keep his mouth shut and play against Kilmarnock. And now we hear that a Barcelona player has tested positive for the virus.

This at a time when there is very little football being played. I fail to see how a league season starting on 12 September won't quickly descend into chaos. And this without fans in attendance. As I have said above I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see how the upcoming season is going to work.

Unfortunately I tend to agree with you Stan.
It won’t be long before some team starts to pick up the virus with several players testing positive. Thus putting their fixtures in jeopardy.
I notice that in the English rugby that any team that does not for fill any of their remaining games they are handed a 20 - nil defeat.
Would something like that work in football ie a 1 - 0 defeat and 3 points to the other side?
There is also the potential for fixture backlogs if a particular area is under lockdown through no fault of the football side. Thus no team or out to play elsewhere.
Just some thoughts here guys.

English rugby league must now be hanging by a thread, after six Hull payers tested positive they are even going to analyse video to see who tackled whom in one game which sounds pretty desperate. They are already playing without scrums.

Can't decide if it's ominous for football or good news because it will highlight lessons that can be learned.

George Street-Bridge wrote:English rugby league must now be hanging by a thread, after six Hull payers tested positive they are even going to analyse video to see who tackled whom in one game which sounds pretty desperate. They are already playing without scrums.

Can't decide if it's ominous for football or good news because it will highlight lessons that can be learned.

To me the obvious lesson, which is ominous, is that contact sport will spread a virus.

George Street-Bridge wrote:English rugby league must now be hanging by a thread, after six Hull payers tested positive they are even going to analyse video to see who tackled whom in one game which sounds pretty desperate. They are already playing without scrums.

Can't decide if it's ominous for football or good news because it will highlight lessons that can be learned.

Very strange way of investing the matter. Surely it would more straightforward to just assume all the opponents are equally likely to have made contact, so test/isolate them all.

Stan A. Einstein wrote: To me the obvious lesson, which is ominous, is that contact sport will spread a virus.

Agreed. But the Australian NRL, with more teams in the league, playing with scrums and 12 rounds since resuming, seems to have avoided any player infections despite a number of "bubble" discipline breaches by players and coaches. Of course the TV revenues are so huge it has been possible to relocate some clubs completely.

Fu Ming wrote: Would something like that work in football ie a 1 - 0 defeat and 3 points to the other side?

I think it would need to be a 5-0 walk over as some teams may be happy to accept a 1-0 loss as it may help them out goal-difference wise.

Carabao (League) Cup first round to take place Saturday 5th September.

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/august/20 ... s-the-efl/

Stan A. Einstein wrote:

George Street-Bridge wrote:English rugby league must now be hanging by a thread, after six Hull payers tested positive they are even going to analyse video to see who tackled whom in one game which sounds pretty desperate. They are already playing without scrums.

Can't decide if it's ominous for football or good news because it will highlight lessons that can be learned.

To me the obvious lesson, which is ominous, is that contact sport will spread a virus.

Not particularly likely for transmission on-pitch in football (https://www.consultancy.uk/news/24875/r ... g-covid-19), it's the circumstances around it are what need to be controlled - the EFL have already resumed fixtures with the Championship and I'd be very surprised if the same "sealed venue" criteria with health passports and regular testing wasn't required from all EFL clubs.

There's no particular reason to think the odd positive test here and there will cause postponements either, the Scottish situation is as much about the Scottish government holding the clubs to account and the clubs realising they'd better listen than it was the SPFL enforcing postponements they hadn't planned to insist upon. Clubs breaking the regulations should expect to have to play matches without players, it's not like there's been a situation where there weren't enough professionals available.

And at the same time that playing matches shouldn't be a problem (because of the testing), not doing everything possible to prevent fans gathering would be a mistake (as seen in Liverpool, Leeds etc).

The thing is, who will fund testing at lower levels of the game? When resuming L1 and L2 for last season was under discussion they were talking about two tests per week for everyone at £150 per test.

Multiply that by say 30 people per club once you factor in coaches, kit staff, the bus driver etc and for half a season we are looking at almost a quarter of a million per club, i.e. one third on top of the salary cap for the same period.