How the Premier League could resume!
Aside from two yet to be scheduled games involving Man City, Sheffield United, Arsenal and Aston villa, nine more match weekends remain to conclude what has been a contrasting season, and, that, without the concerns of covid19.
As I’m sure everyone reading this and everyone who loves the game of football knows, the two contrasts I’m referring to are:
1) The performances of the top 3 sides in the Premier League, in particular, that of Man city and Leicester City, while Chelsea, without their talismanic playmaker of many years, one Eden Hazard (by name and by nature), have captured fourth and made it their own.
2) The total misuse and incompetency of VAR (see the TRUTH’s incisive scathing article: ‘How some referees and VAR treat Premiership players with contempt!’).
Fundamentally speaking, the pandemic has resulted in something other than VAR’s disrespect for the rules, more so that of the fans, for people to talk about.
The longer the delay in concluding the season, the greater the chance there is of it being cancelled; rendered null and void, while Liverpool only need 6 points to be crowned, and rightfully so, Premier League champions, something that, despite who you support, should not be denied the players, manager and club, along with their many loyal fans.
That, of course, and if you apply three little words, ‘All Things Considered’, need not happen, as I will now explain.
The players. Those that travel to away matches outside of their home town should travel by train rather than a convoy of team coaches, and arrive the day before the game, staying in separate hotel rooms. If, as is the norm, two players share a room, it would need to be big enough to maintain a level of social distance.
When travelling from the hotel to the match ground, a convoy of coaches from a local coach company can take the players, manager/coach and his support team to the ground.
Arriving early, the players, in groups, can get changed and then go out onto the field to warm-up.
It has to be stressed, no one, not even the Prime Minister, is immune from covid19, meaning that, anyone who hasn't had it is vulnerable to it!
For obvious reasons, players could not parade out of their respective changing rooms at the start of each half, while the substitutes, possibly needing to be limited as far as the available options go, would remain in the changing room until needed and with a two-way communication between coach/manager and those in the changing room so that there is little to no delay in substituting players.
Okay, and since, as Alan Sheerer commented on MOTD Oct 5 2019 ‘It’s a contact sport’, how do you maintain social distancing? And here is the answer.
The two tone strips of grass in this screenshot – one light the other dark – coincidentally are 6 yards (rather than the metric 6 metres) apart:
A free kick is about to be taken by the two Watford players top and left of the centre circle. Despite the fact that the match referee is looking in their direction, he failed to take any action with regard to the fact that the Wolves player, the one with a red ‘>’ pointing at him, should be 10 yards away from the ball, and is, in fact, around 3 yards away. In studying the screenshot closely, you will note that, apart from the 3 players mentioned and the Watford player to the left of the encroaching Wolves player, only two others, not counting the referee, are less than 6 yards away from one another. A football field, even one with 20 outfield players on it, is quite big and roomy.
Conceivable changes to the game. Tackles will have to be minimalised. Instead, it will be a game of pass accuracy, reading the game and pass interception, skills that, in recent years, have gone from the game (where is the next David Beckham?). A lack of tackling at close quarters also reduces the need for VAR (hooray!) for anything other than offside and handballs inside the penalty box. Reducing tackling will also negate the need for a wall between the player taking a free kick and the goal. Alternatively, and since the free kick is outside the 18 yard box and a penalty is taken from a distance of 12 yards, the free kick could be taken the same as a penalty; no one between the ball and the goal. Of course, the player taking the free kick should not be obliged to attempt a shot on goal.
Corners. The amount of players permitted inside the penalty area, an equal amount from each side, not counting the goalkeeper defending the corner, would need to be reduced from the throng seen in better, safer times.
Rather than return to the changing room at halftime, and provided it’s not raining, players can remain on the field, with the coach/manager giving his players a team talk in three groups. For those players wishing to sit down while their coach/manager speaks to another group, fold out chairs could be provided.
Fans. Again, this is so simple. 9 games, 10 for four teams, while the pandemic, along with the ongoing need for social distancing, will hopefully be over before the final match day of the season. Until then, no away fans can attend matches. Home fans, those with season tickets, would need to be spread out over the remaining games.
For example, let us say a ground has seating capacity of 60,000 and that in order to maintain social distancing, only a fifth of those seats, 12,000, could be used. If season ticket holders total 24,000 then, and with 5 or 4 home games left, a group of 12,000 would be allowed in for 2 games while the second group would be allowed in for the two other games; groups alternated from one game to the next. Unfortunately, children, those who go to games with a parent etc would have to say at home.
To reduce a need for the toilet, fans should be advised not to drink excessively, while food can either be brought in or vendors could go around the crowd selling comestibles, just like they do at US sports games.
VAR!
As mentioned in the TRUTH’s article: ‘How some referees and VAR treat Premiership players with contempt!’, come the end of the season, all 10 games would kick off at the same time. That means, ‘Stockley Park’, mentioned as the HQ’s of VAR, has 10 individual, sound-proof rooms; 1 for each of the 10 games.
According to this screenprint from the Premier League’s site, there are two VAR’s per game; the main VAR and their assistant:
The first photo, of a VAR room, shows as many as seven people in it; five sat down plus two onlookers. For those of you who think there is a mirror, simply because those sat either side of the table’s dividing screen are lacking in hair, the person sat beside them, is posed differently. The one with the number ‘1’ left of their head is VAR Anthony Taylor. I cannot see why, while there is no mention of them on the list of officials, there are as many as seven people in the room, moreover, the two onlookers.
By scheduling the games as five on Saturday and five on Sunday, even if they all kicked off at the same time, the main VAR’s could reside in five of the 10 VAR rooms while their assistants reside in the other five rooms. If that is not possible, then all that needs to be done is to modify the table layout to maintain a 6 yard distance.
FA Cup. There are 7 matches outstanding. The final 3 of which would be played at Wembley. Why not, instead, play all 7 games at Wembley and on a non-Premier League match weekend for all but the final?
There you have it. The solution to: ‘How the Premier League could resume!’ One can only conclude that those who failed to work it out, the Premier League, BBC Sport etc, are devoid of the sufficient amount of brain cells to do so.
Footnote: Having published this 26 years update of the original printed TRUTH from and since 1994 to the internet, the TRUTH has contacted, by e-mail, one or more of those named in this article. Specifically, BBC sport and the Premier League as well as Liverpool FC and Burnley FC.
UPDATE! May 18 2020. According to the news, Man City’s Raheem Sterling ‘Can’t wait’ to play but asks for a month of full training. That would mean a projected start of mid June with, as mentioned, 10 games for Man city and 9 for 16 others. Even with two games a week that works out to a projected end of August for the 2019 season while there are European games for Man City and others to compete in along with 3 FA cup rounds.
Taking all of that into consideration, while one can only wonder if the FA (Football Association), Premier League and UEFA have, and allowing players a holiday before the start of the 2020 season, its projected start will come around or after Mid October.
One can only, likewise, wonder if those responsible for producing the 2020 fixtures, have worked that out. Meaning that, with two games a week, in order to avoid the congestion next season, 2020, there will ‘have to be’ more midweek matches than usual.
