Football and THE VIRUS

Sitting here today, five years seems like a long time to suspend promotion and relegation but when leagues do resume play there could be major financial changes to the sport in the coming years. For example, some existing player contracts may create economic hardships for clubs to honor if revenue streams are significantly decreased. I can see where if may be necessary for leagues to take a long-term economic view of where they stand going forward.

 

FIFA proposes the availability of five substitutions through the end of 2021 seasons. The as of yet approved rule change gives each league the option to increase the amount of subs per game up to five. This is in response to the presumed congested nature of fixtures once leagues return to action.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52443195

I think it's an interesting option and am curious to see how many leagues jump on it. There will still likely be a lot of wear and tear on players once matches resume. I saw that three matches for some international windows might also be implemented to get World Cup qualifying on schedule.

 

France is the first big league to officially cancel the remainder of the 2019-2020 season. (The Dutch league was also canceled with no champion and no promotion/relegation.) PSG has been crowned champions with Marseille and Rennes given Champions League spots.

https://www.ligue1.com/Articles/NEWS/2020/04/30/psg-champions-season-ended-ligue-1

 

So, apparently, the current contingency plan involves automatically promoting Leeds and West Brom, and pursue a reduced playoff schedule based on the current standings, i.e., we would play Preston and Brentford would play Nottingham Forest in sudden death single matches at empty, neutral venues. What would happen after that? Presumably, the winners play another one off under the same conditions to determine who goes up.

Stay tuned....

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-season-not-completed-promote-leeds-west-brom

 

The variation and scope of current articles is very reminiscent of the rumors of the transfer window. There have been a few articles that I almost posted, but it's hard sometimes to separate the facts from the speculation and I don't want to over saturate things when there have not been any actual decisions made yet.

 

Bundesliga to restart on May 16.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/german-...-to-return-from-coronavirus-on-may-16-sources

https://www.skysports.com/football/...rt-season-on-may-16-after-government-approval

 

This is equal parts exciting and unsettling.

 

I would respectfully suggest more the latter than the former.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/sports/soccer/coronavirus-german-soccer-bundesliga.html

 

Training will be allowed to resume for Championship teams tomorrow, Monday, May 26:
http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2020/may/22/efl-statement

 

• the number of positive cases (if any)

^^^ This is tremendously hopeful, is it not?

EDIT: It seems it wasn't tremendously hopeful. Only 2 positive tests out of 1014.

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/may/efl-statement-covid-19-test-results/