Here we go again…..

 

    They say a week is a long time in football and this week has been longer than I can remember in recent times. 

 Lets get the controversial stuff such as Covid Passports and compulsory vaccinations out of the way first. This blog is about football and I have not and will not judge people on their viewpoint on vaccinations.  We all make decisions every day and some are good and some are bad, however we all have the freedom of choice and that’s how it should always be. Covid Passports look to be coming in and lets be honest, hundreds or thousands of smart, but wrongens are probably already creating fake ones!!

 

Our 2-2 draw at Wycombe last Saturday was part of a full league programme in the English Premier League (EPL) and English Football League (EFL) and kept us above the relegation places comfortably and looking up the table rather than below us. Then the fun started and our home fixture against Portsmouth was postponed the day before due to Pompey having a number of positive Covid-19 cases within their squad. The club statement on our official website said  “The EFL will now review the circumstances surrounding the postponement. In a statement announcing the postponement, the EFL added that it will assist affected clubs throughout this challenging period to help them mitigate the risk of infection amongst players and staff, while ensuring their obligations to the EFL regulations are maintained”

I have no reason to doubt the integrity of Pompey as they sit joint top of the 8 game form table and best us 2-1 at Fratton Park a month ago, however I am concerned about the guidelines around a club requesting a fixture to be postponed and being accepted by the EFL. 

The EPL agreed recently that a team would play a fixture if they had 14 fit players. The clubs and the EFL do not release the number of players with positive tests or the players details. I fully support that the positive tests names should remain confidential, but I think it would help with the transparency if clubs confirmed how many players have tested positive. Rick Parry was speaking on Football Focus yesterday and said the EFL would resist a circuit breaker as no scientific evidence has been produced to suggest that this would be effective. He was also quoted saying “We’ve got to stick together, stay calm and keep making balanced decision on the basis of the latest information” Making balanced decisions is my concern as we simply have no idea who is genuinely calling games off for the right reasons and the ones who are, lets say, using the situation to their advantage. 

 

Yesterday 6 of the 12 League One fixtures were postponed. Across the EFL, 19 of the 34 fixtures were postponed and only 1 EPL fixture was played. Burnley fans must be wondering what is going on as their games against Watford and Aston Villa have been postponed by the opposition 2 hours before the game. Aston Villa submitted a request to the EPL at 10am on the morning of the game and it took until 1pm for it to be approved. Yes I accept that Burnley would have known about the request but how does any player prepare for a game that could be called off at any time.

 

Our game against Pompey was a near sellout and hospitality was near sold out. The postponement for a big fixture on the last Saturday before Xmas will not have helped the club financially and we have yet another fixture to reschedule. So far we have the game against them, Cheltenham, Pompey and now Ipswich who we were due to face on the FA Cup Third round day. If our Boxing Day clash against Charlton gets postponed, we have a serious fixture backlog and the January transfer window could become even more important getting bodies in to ensure we have players to pick from. At present we have 15 games scheduled in 55 days, which starts from the Charlton game and doesn’t include the Pompey rearranged game. It works out at a game every 4 days over that period, and this will impact teams with smaller squads. The only positive I can find from these fixtures is that we can use 5 finishers from 9 named for the Boreham Wood game and I would think there is a strong possibility that this will be added to EFL fixtures as it was last season.

 

What other considerations do the club now need to look at for our Boxing Day game? 

 

Ø  We know from recent reports that London is on a major incident warning due to the numbers of daily infections with this new variant. 

 

Ø  Will we have enough people to be able to stage the game, such as stewards and hospitality workers? 

 

Ø  Will the government bring in more stringent measures over the next week that means we wouldn’t be able to open up hospitality anyway? 

 

Ø  Will fans want to attend the game due to risk of catching the virus and would the club offer any other options like refunds etc?

 

Ø  Will the EFL bring back the option of ifollow for all ST holders and they can watch the game free of charge like we did last season?

 

The DTB held a AGM on Thursday and naturally discussion was around our £4.6m bridging loan that needs to be paid back in around 6 months. The financial projections will have been on home attendances of 7.5k over the season and any restrictions or games being played behind closed doors will seriously impact the projections.

 

The club also announced that they had reviewed and changed the ballot criteria for the Boreham Wood game in the FA Cup and the latest situation could cause the club even more headaches with fans potentially getting a ticket and then catching the virus and having to self isolate. Also I watched Boreham Wood’s game against St Albans in the last round and lets just say, the fans are seriously packed into the away end, very similar to my experiences at The Dell back in the 90’s. 

 

The Carabao Cup quarter finals are scheduled for this midweek and there has been a mention of the semi finals being only one leg due to the fixture pile up. Will the FA consider scrapping replays for the 3^rd round of the FA Cup as this has the potential to add to the fixture pile up, however the replays create excellent revenue for clubs and also we would be at a disadvantage being drawn away.  

 

The EPL are in a seriously challenging situation as they know that the games need to continue as planned, otherwise TV companies will be looking at refunds for games not played or behind closed doors. With the Tracy Crouch fan-led review in the public domain, I imagine chairman in the EFL will also be looking to see if the EPL think about supporting the EFL again if this situation gets worse and clubs lose lots of games or played behind closed doors.

 

Whatever happens, the well-being of players, management team, staff, hospitality, stewards and fans are the highest priority and I struggle to see the logic of Spurs having 70k at todays game with Liverpool at the lane when this is surely a super spreader event. 

 

If only Spurs considered giving refunds to any fans that has to self isolate or just doesn’t think it is safe to go to the game this afternoon…..