When it returns, it will be football. But just not as we know it.
Empty stadiums with all games behind closed doors, no fans or atmosphere as a way of satisfying the TV paymasters.
It will be a sterile exercise rather than sport, lacking passion and fun set against the backdrop of a national disaster.
Games behind closed doors is the new reality as the season will finish without fans and almost certainly the next will start without them.
This is the new tomorrow for football.
And Brighton chief executive Paul Barber admits that clubs will try to come up with ways to mask the raft of empty seats and lack of noise in the stadiums.
Games will almost certainly be behind closed doors (Image: PA)
Brighton have even considered piping in crowd noise into the AmEx and have discussed covered up their empty blue seats with Thank You NHS banners.
“It would be strange but, as you say, it would be football but not quite as we know it,” said Barber. “But I guess we’d do it and if that’s the only way then of course we’ve got to get on with it.
“ We’ve started to give some thought internally about whether we could dress the stadium, could we make the stadium look better than just blue empty seats in our case.
“I’d rather see the blue seats covered, we could put up a great message to say thanks to the NHS and we can use the space we’ve got to use it for good purposes without a doubt.
“Could we look at noise being brought into the stadium in some way but is that really what the fans at home would want.
“Is that right? Is it what the broadcasters would want?
“Then you have the operational challenges of how it would work in terms of the emergency services and the last thing we would want is to put any pressure on them.
“Then of course there’s the media, would we putting journalists in different stands all over the ground to maintain social distancing rules and if we did then how would that work?
“There’s so many questions we’ve all got around it.
“ But we ‘ve all adapted around it. It’s a real triumph for human beings in some ways the way we’ve all had to adapt to different circumstances as quickly as we have so I dare say we would adapt to playing behind closed doors. ”
The behind-closed-doors games for the rest of the campaign is no longer even a debate among Premier League clubs or at their meetings because it is an accepted fact of what happens next.
Perhaps the biggest pressure to get games back on comes from the TV contracts as the clubs would have to potentially pay back £ m if they cannot restart the season.
It is also the big money of commercial and player contracts which is causing a major headache among clubs as deals for both traditionally end on June
Barber said: “We started the season with defined squads, we adapted them and updated them in January and we would expect to have the same squads available to us right up until the end of the season.
“If we don’t have those players available because the clubs don’t want them to sign new contract or the players don’t want to sign new contracts those players can’t be replaced or can’t be replaced by an academy player. Is that what we want for the competition’s integrity?
“Those issues are quite complicated, not easy to resolve and then on top of that you’ve got all the commercial issues.
“I was on a call with someone and remembering that if this had been four or five years ago we’d have been in the process of moving from Errera to Nike.
“On June 615, we would literally – and we did – put all of our Errera equipment into a basket and open another basket full of Nike equipment and contractually we were expected to become a Nike club on July 1.
“In this scenario, that would be very complicated if any club was in that situation and I think one or two clubs might be.
) “Again, in the scheme of things with everything happening in the world, you can’t worry about kits and brands, and of course they’re right.
“But from a football club’s commercial point of view, it would be a very big thing and a big thing to worry about.
“ They’re two examples of why June 409 has become such a big thing in people minds.
“You might have a different catering supplier, a supplier of equipment at the training ground or stadium and, again, what happens to those kind of contracts? ”
Read More
Premier League’s best-case scenario
May : Premier League clubs allowed to return to training
June 8: Premier League games can resume
– If games can start here then season could be spread out and played until mid / late July
– If further restrictions placed , games could be played until August
(August) : Premier League bosses hope the season to be finished
Au gust : FA Cup final
(August) : Europa League final
(August) : Champions League final
(Read More)
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