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Coronavirus could prevent Liverpool from winning the Premier League title


Baltar
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Sorry, behind a paywall again (tight cunts)!

 

The toxic rift over plans to complete the Premier League season at neutral venues has deepened, with positions becoming more entrenched amid mounting threats over the consequences of clubs failing to break the deadlock.

The 20 teams from the world’s richest league prepared for what could be an acrimonious meeting on Monday over ‘Project Restart’, with no sign of any of the warring factions backing down, as:

New pressure will be put on the bottom six clubs in Monday’s meeting to end their opposition to surrendering home advantage, including a potential warning they could face points deductions for failing to fulfil fixtures if the league votes to resume games at neutral venues.

That happened to Middlesbrough in 1996-97 when they forfeited a December fixture against Blackburn Rovers, citing a...

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/05/07/premier-leagues-project-restart-takes-toxic-turn-rebel-clubs/

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It's always amusing seeing clubs punching above their normal weight who think they are the football equivalent of the Green Bay Packers. Their success is down to values and forward planning and solid foundations and living within their means, none of which does them any good when they invariably are tossed from the Premier League merry-go-round and left with Premier League contracts and Championship/League One revenues, something Green Bay never have to worry about. Brighton's owners need to get their heads from out of their own arses.

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Said it before and I'll say it again, this stuff is going to cause a massive split in football. There's going to be a lot of anger, resentment and bile. I dread to think what the atmos is going to be like at Anfield when these dogs turn up and taunt us with their bullshit chants. And it will be alot worse when we go away.

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1 minute ago, dockers_strike said:

Said it before and I'll say it again, this stuff is going to cause a massive split in football. There's going to be a lot of anger, resentment and bile. I dread to think what the atmos is going to be like at Anfield when these dogs turn up and taunt us with their bullshit chants. And it will be alot worse when we go away.

Three things.

1. Fuck "em.

2. "atmos"????

3. Fuck 'em.

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It will piss them off more. By February they had already mentally prepared themselves and developed coping strategies for us winning the league.

 

Now they have had the constant drip feed of void/carry on they have been getting excited until this week. They now have the possibility of the season spanning most of the summer which prolongs their agony. 

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21 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Nothing to taunt unless it's void. Anything else who cares piss them off by enjoying it anyway.

Although it will make my piss boil, I can take any taunts whatever the outcome. But I cannot speak for those at the edge of our support who might see it different. Nor the utter nutters in other clubs' fanbase who would like nothing than a bit of old fashioned agro.

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24 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

The crowd should sing the Skol song when they pipe up. 

 

I don't think I've ever tried Skol.

Pardon my political correctness, but that was Hagar the Horrible, not Asterisk.

 

(Last time I bought Skol was to make slug traps on the allotment.  That's how much I hate the slimy little fuckers.)

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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/08/neutral-venue-plan-has-no-rationale-says-former-football-police-commander-premier-league-fans

 

Quote

David Conn Fri 8 May 2020 10.04 BST

 

Police advice that Premier League clubs must play at neutral venues if they resume the season has “no rationale” and risks demonising supporters by assuming they will gather unsafely outside grounds, a former football policing commander has said.

 

Owen West, a recently retired West Yorkshire chief superintendent, told the Guardian that football clubs can help give a lead as local community organisations to any gradual easing of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and do not need to be switched from their home grounds to play games.

 

“The problem we are all facing is the spread of the coronavirus, yet the potential return of football matches is being discussed as a public order issue, as if supporters are going to gather en masse outside grounds,” said West, a senior consultant with Enable, a group of experts who promote a progressive approach to football policing.

 

“That tone demonises fans who have been very mature during this crisis, complying with the lockdown and also contributing admirably, to food banks and community aid.”

 

Enable – whose leadership includes Clifford Stott, a professor of social psychology who sits on the SPI-B sub-committee of the government’s scientific advisory group on emergencies (Sage) – has been funded by the EFL for two years to research collaborative policing.

 

“I do not see the rationale for regional hubs,” West said. “I believe football clubs, in their localities, can play a leadership role in the crisis, hosting matches when they are allowed and giving guidance to their supporters about the social distancing and other measures required to keep safe.”

 

The Premier League’s Project Restart plan proposes playing the remaining matches at eight to 10 neutral grounds. That is understood to result partly from police advice to the government that supporters would gather in large numbers outside home grounds and breach physical distancing requirements.


DCC Mark Roberts, head of the UK Football Policing Unit, had said the Premier League and EFL would be putting an impracticable strain on police and other emergency services if they played matches at home.

 

The language is of stark warnings being given about fans gathering, which is really disappointing.

 

“Football must appreciate that as the country begins what will inevitably be a long route to normality there will be a significant and unpredictable demand on the police, ambulance and local authorities, all of which are currently stretched, in part through the abstraction of our staff,” Roberts said. “In my own force, our planning team, including football officers, have been redeployed into a logistical team managing elements of our Covid-19 response.

 

“The requirement of football is that it should look at flexible options that minimise its call on public services and not add to them through unrealistic demands.

 

“Playing out 450-plus games at 92 stadiums is an impracticable burden to put on the police, ambulance and local authorities. In addition to football’s own issues around stadiums, it is unrealistic not to envisage large gatherings of supporters celebrating various on-field achievements.”

 

West criticised Roberts’s tone as too punitive, based on supporters being a public order problem. “The language is of stark warnings being given about fans gathering, which is really disappointing. If the prime minister relaxes freedom to exercise and engage in leisure, it may be that people might attend near their home ground. As long as they do so in a safe way, I don’t see a problem.”

 

Roberts clarified he had not received firm proposals from the Premier League, whose clubs are awaiting the government’s update on the lockdown, expected to be eased slightly on Sunday night, before clarifying their plans further at a meeting on Monday. Several clubs, including Brighton and Aston Villa, have publicly stated opposition to neutral venues, arguing that playing at home better preserves sporting integrity and can be as safe as neutral venues. The EFL has said it does want to play matches at home grounds.

 

Roberts, speaking to ITV, said football people talking about sporting integrity needed to consider the casualties of Covid-19: “In the broader context, where the country has seen 30,000, and rising, deaths, some of the people making these comments need to get a grip because we’ve all got a responsibility – yes to make progress for the benefit of the country, but equally to do it in a way that minimises the risk that anything we do adds to that death toll.”

 

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1 hour ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

Pardon my political correctness, but that was Hagar the Horrible, not Asterisk.

 

(Last time I bought Skol was to make slug traps on the allotment.  That's how much I hate the slimy little fuckers.)

Well that's that bad idea fucked then.

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