With the global spread of covid-19 or the coronavirus all elite level football has been postponed in the UK until April 3rd. However, the closer we get to that date it seems inevitable that football wont resume that early. This has left us with many questions but the most important one being, what’s next?
A statement was released by the Premier League breaking the news of the postponement:
” Following a meeting of Shareholders today, it was unanimously decided to suspend the Premier League with the intention of returning on 4 April, subject to medical advice and conditions at the time.
Despite the challenges, it is the Premier League’s aim to reschedule the displaced fixtures, including those played by Academy sides, when it is safe to do so. “
As of today we don’t really know what will happen now with football but there are different options available:
Make the season void
One option that seems to be the favourite of fans of teams in the relegation zone is to restart the season in August if all is clear and everything that has happened up until now will be void. This would cause some issues however.
With Liverpool 25 points clear at the top of the table only 6 points away from the title, they will surely have some grievances with this option. Teams about to be promoted from the Championship will also miss out on a large amount of money if they have to restart the season. Also what happens with European football as we are right into the knockout rounds of both the Champions League and Europa League.
Surely this would have to be a last resort?
Postpone the Euro’s and play the season into the summer
It has been reported that the Italian FA has asked UEFA to postpone the Euro’s so that they can finish the season in the summer.
Surely if UEFA complied with this then other leagues would follow suit in wanting to do this. I think this is the most logical proposition as it would give all the leagues a natural end with no teams feeling robbed of trophies or promotion.
This would cause logistical issues for ticket sales for the Euro’s and moving the dates could cause travel issues and hotel arrangements that may already have been made.
Current standings to be final
The last option that I have seen floated around is the idea to make the current Premier League standings as the final standings. This would declare Liverpool champions but also relegate; Norwich, Aston Villa and Bournemouth.
This option also has some big problems, as Liverpool can mathematically still be caught by Manchester City (as unlikely as that is) and the relegation battle is very close so the teams currently in the drop zone would feel very hard done by.
This option also does not give us a Champions League or Europa League winner.
All these option are probably all being explored by the FA and the Premier League but as of right now we still really don’t know what will happen to the Premier League.
