Papski2 wrote:Belgian League cancelled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52138270

In a statement, the league said: "The board of directors unanimously decided that it was not desirable, whatever the scenario envisaged, to continue the competition after 30 June."

Seems only one game to go anyway.

NearlyDead wrote:

Papski2 wrote:Belgian League cancelled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52138270

In a statement, the league said: "The board of directors unanimously decided that it was not desirable, whatever the scenario envisaged, to continue the competition after 30 June."

Seems only one game to go anyway.

They need to be careful as UEFA have said Leagues that cancel early might lose their Champions League & Europa slots.

NearlyDead wrote: Seems only one game to go anyway.

The league changes format into some kind of playoff scenario to see who's champions.

Looking forward to any comms from today's meetings. Be nice to see some leadership and some opitions laid out.

Ah, wasn't aware of the change. But I see they are awarding it to Bruges, being 15 points ahead anyway.

Early news from today's meetings: Doncaster, Orient and Coventry putting playing staff on furlough. Presume others will follow.

The PL are to give the FL £125m

Seems they still want to complete this season on the field; and I may be reading too much into what I read, but I am beginning to think they realise they might not be able to start next season on time.

Personally I think they should draw a line on this season and focus on getting next season started say September it would be something to look forward to and every club knows where they are then

And looks like PL giving extra payments to smaller clubs which will help

Finish this season whenever and delay the next season pruning peripherals as has already been stated. Don' t boot the season into touch.

I don't know what the FAW is doing, but they could easily declare a result based on placings at the point the Welsh Premier split in two after 22 games out of 32. And isn't that based on Scotland?

Agree Sky will be crapping themselves over people deciding to cancel their subs rather than pause and maybe cancel after pausing. As soon as they can get a couple of games of any sort played behind closed doors, they'll be lining up about 20 hours of empty punditry for every game played and reactivating the paused subs (like mine).

The whole idea that a game like Charlton v Blackburn is a big deal (unless you support either) just because it's the one they happen to have rights to has gone right out the window.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52175816

Not looking good

I'm no expert on this virus stuff but it seems fanciful to imagine next season starting on time unless games are played behind closed doors (which rather defeats the point at our level).

Personally I think we’ll see games played (at least Premier League) by August. Probably behind closed doors.

If the Premier League commences before it is considered totally safe for spectators to attend, the 'brand' will lose even more goodwill than they already have done. It would be a clear statement that fans attending matches is well down the list of priorities.

We are all clueless.
Guess, suggest whatever but nobody knows when it will be safe again.
Could be a year away, especially if idiots ignore instructions and workers are allowed to carry on regardless.
Doing a cracking job but the recycle lads were about today.
3 in the cab totally nuts.
What chance that they will avoid it?

George Street-Bridge wrote:I don't know what the FAW is doing, but they could easily declare a result based on placings at the point the Welsh Premier split in two after 22 games out of 32. And isn't that based on Scotland?

Agree Sky will be crapping themselves over people deciding to cancel their subs rather than pause and maybe cancel after pausing. As soon as they can get a couple of games of any sort played behind closed doors, they'll be lining up about 20 hours of empty punditry for every game played and reactivating the paused subs (like mine).

The whole idea that a game like Charlton v Blackburn is a big deal (unless you support either) just because it's the one they happen to have rights to has gone right out the window.

The WPL would have to follow whatever UEFA decides, they'd risk damaging their co-efficient if they don't sort out their European places in a way that UEFA agrees with. Belgium were fortunate that they could end their season without too much to sort out.

Below that, it looks like only Haverfordwest have a license for promotion to the 1st tier, and with Cefn Druids and Airbus failing theirs, the WPL may only have 11 teams whenever the next season starts again.

Actually playing football till whenever is totally irrelevant right now,however how 90% of people actually associated with it on modest money isn’t and I’m more concerned about that.however if this suspension goes on another cpl of months at least then even the broadcasters etc will have to concede they will lose x number of games wether it’s this season ended as it stands or shortened season next but can’t see how that works with euros scheduled for next summer they just won’t get the number of games end of and that will be globally

Let's assume whatever steps the EPL take to get the season going again are what the EFL does (even though the two leagues' business models have key differences). Remembering our cut-off date is June 30.

Looking at League 2, most teams have nine games to play. I think it's fair to assume that once they're given the green light clubs will require at least a two week lead-time to prepare. That'd leave teams with a perfectly manageable one match per week to play.

However, with social distancing still a hot topic, our PM fighting for his life, businesses collapsing, streets deserted, it's fair to assume we face at least several more weeks of lockdown. So that means playing at least some of our remaining matches behind closed doors.

How, then, are clubs compensated for loss of gate money? Presumably a TV deal where maybe a couple of thousand tune in to watch Newport v Forest Green.

It seems likely, as the country braces for entry into recession, that TV revenue will be inconsequential as supporters are unlikely to pay out for such fare in sufficient numbers (remembering of course that some season ticket holders may balk at effectively paying twice).

The most likely solution is that the EPL make up the league clubs' shortfall. Though even within the EFL we've vastly different financial beasts flailing about.

Having said all that, notwithstanding the fact that news is changing very swiftly, I still think the season is likely to be scrapped, clubs run out of cash, players are released en masse, and potentially our best case scenario will be a much shorter 2020/21 season. It's like SimCity - football version.