Football League Suspended

[MarkBRFC]

No way will that happen any higher up.

Read the other day that the national league were on about ending there season now but with all results standing, so Barrow would get promoted.

[Mattyblue]

But then that is also a legal minefield at the higher levels.

[davulsukur]

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Non-League season below National League (so Northern Premier downwards) cancelled and records expunged.

Lower stakes in many ways than the pro game, and certainly you couldn’t imagine Truro City, South Shields et al having the means to begin legal action against their league, but a precedent?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52052351

Pretty harsh that, some teams had already won the league and gained promotion, now that promotion is cancelled.

In the grand schemes of things, most people won't care at all but for the people involved it will be hugely frustrating and will seem very unfair.

As it says in the article, if its Liverpool, they are taking the FA to court but these teams don't have the cash for that.

[MarkBRFC]

Funnily enough I've just read an article on South Shields taking legal action, they are 12 points clear and have apparently invested a lot this season to achieve that goal.

Could all get a bit messy this.

[Mattyblue]

The Chairman was on 5Live earlier, he didn’t sound like he was going to take it lying down...

[tomphil]

Can't have one rule for one lot and not the others. Either null and void the whole football pyramid or come to another arrangement, for all !

Harder for lads who work obviously but easier to play non league games behind closed doors  when lockdown is relaxed a bit i'd have thought.

[RoverCanada]

https://theathletic.com/1703320/2020/03/27/blackburn-rovers-wage-deferral/ (paywall, sorry!)

Rovers latest club to agree to a wage deferral.

Summary:

- Players refused a request to defer some payments for March, upset at only being given half a day's notice

- They have now agreed to defer some wages from April onwards

- Notes that it's related to short-term cashflow rather than any issue with Venky's (the article notes their shares have dropped 9%, which sounds relatively modest to me! Perhaps a rare occasion to be thankful for Venky's deep pockets in these times...)

- A source in the article notes how every Championship club is having these discussions. The clubs in the EFL have discussed a collective agreement for a temporary wage cap or % cut to all player wages.

[tomphil]

At least there'll now be no need for an incoming transfer thread for the next few windows !

[iacok]

Reprieve for Chorley!

[JacknOry]

1 hour ago, RoverCanada said:

https://theathletic.com/1703320/2020/03/27/blackburn-rovers-wage-deferral/ (paywall, sorry!)

Rovers latest club to agree to a wage deferral.

Summary:

- Players refused a request to defer some payments for March, upset at only being given half a day's notice

- They have now agreed to defer some wages from April onwards

- Notes that it's related to short-term cashflow rather than any issue with Venky's (the article notes their shares have dropped 9%, which sounds relatively modest to me! Perhaps a rare occasion to be thankful for Venky's deep pockets in these times...)

- A source in the article notes how every Championship club is having these discussions. The clubs in the EFL have discussed a collective agreement for a temporary wage cap or % cut to all player wages.

So they should too - they earn more than enough. The rest of us are having to cope with our own individual circumstances. They are not playing or training and cannot 'work' from home. Not their fault but all players should accept lower terms for now. 

[Rogerb]

3 hours ago, iacok said:

Reprieve for Chorley!

Not at the moment still possible to be promoted from national league north those results have not been experiencing so Chorley still can be relegated

[Ozz]

8 hours ago, JacknOry said:

So they should too - they earn more than enough. The rest of us are having to cope with our own individual circumstances. They are not playing or training and cannot 'work' from home. Not their fault but all players should accept lower terms for now. 

Problem with that is like me their budgets and outgoings would probably based on a fixed income. Even if it is significantly higher than mine. Any drop could be an issue on mortgages  car payments etc. 

[JacknOry]

10 hours ago, Ozz said:

Problem with that is like me their budgets and outgoings would probably based on a fixed income. Even if it is significantly higher than mine. Any drop could be an issue on mortgages  car payments etc. 

Yes but we are all in the same boat, they should not get any special treatment.

[chaddyrovers]

Rovers players paid in full

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18339947.latest-talks-rovers-squad-deferring-wages/

[K-Hod]

Thought this would be on the agenda. 
Especially given Leeds and Brum have done something similar already.

[Ricky]

One of the clubs in Hereford (where I live) were top of their league after not losing a game all season. Their league has been cancelled now with no promotion or relegation. In a similar situation to South Shields who were mentioned above.

I don’t see how they can have different rules across the board. There will need to be some consistency. 

It would also be really amusing if Liverpool missed out due to a worldwide pandemic. 

[Stuart]

3 hours ago, Ricky said:

One of the clubs in Hereford (where I live) were top of their league after not losing a game all season. Their league has been cancelled now with no promotion or relegation. In a similar situation to South Shields who were mentioned above.

I don’t see how they can have different rules across the board. There will need to be some consistency. 

It would also be really amusing if Liverpool missed out due to a worldwide pandemic. 

I can see social distancing being the thing that kills the remainder of this season.

Very likely that everything else being cancelled but Liverpool awarded the title.

But if they do that then the record books should also show Blackpool as winners in 1939/40.

How about a penalty shootout for the remaining fixtures? Send goalkeepers round to teams’ training grounds and face 18 penalties for each team. Squads selected like a normal matchday squad.

[Ossydave]

Seems the Chinese super league MAY look to resume in May or June but the date is creeping back. I fail to see how the season will finish in this country.

[Rogerb]

51 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Seems the Chinese super league MAY look to resume in May or June but the date is creeping back. I fail to see how the season will finish in this country.

Bearing in mind China lockdown has been more strict than here to the worst affected parts and we are around ten weeks behind difficult to see our games resuming before September

[Ossydave]

35 minutes ago, Rogerb said:

Bearing in mind China lockdown has been more strict than here to the worst affected parts and we are around ten weeks behind difficult to see our games resuming before September

Exactly mate. Our Chinese offices at work are still so strict about everything, still wearing masks in every day life etc

[Mattyblue]

Interesting article by Ian Herbert mirroring a lot of our thoughts on where EFL and non league football goes after this...
 

https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sport/football/article-8163771/IAN-HERBERT-Wage-cap-solution-save-game-clubs-fear-worst.html#article-8163771

Edited March 29, 2020 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

First off smack down on the agents, next surely they've got to look at the other snouts in the trough. Do lge 1 & 2 clubs need CEO's etc on 1/200k ?

Finally yes a wage cap and that should start at academy level so that when lower league clubs want to take those from academies further up who haven't quite yet made it they can afford it. 

Back to the days of sourcing players from grass roots and actually employing scouts again, fook agents off altogether and build from the bottom up !

[arbitro]

46 minutes ago, tomphil said:

First off smack down on the agents, next surely they've got to look at the other snouts in the trough. Do lge 1 & 2 clubs need CEO's etc on 1/200k ?

Finally yes a wage cap and that should start at academy level so that when lower league clubs want to take those from academies further up who haven't quite yet made it they can afford it. 

Back to the days of sourcing players from grass roots and actually employing scouts again, fook agents off altogether and build from the bottom up !

This awful pandemic is really going to hit hard in football over the next few months and the implications will run deep and long. The snouts in the trough as you say should be sanitised as agents, club executives, pundits, overpaid PFA executives and many more are pretty much superfluous and the game can survive without them. Quite simply players earn far too much money with many earning large amounts disproportionate to their ability and the level they play at. There will need to be a real reality check for many. Sponsors are going to be hard to come by as many businesses are struggling. Many fans won't commit to new season tickets (whenever it may be) due to so much uncertainty about their own futures. But the biggest financial effect I believe will be Sky getting hit hard as subscribers cancel or suspend their accounts. I suspended mine yesterday and given that I haven't really missed live tv football yet I will give serious consideration to cancelling it permanently. 

The next few months will be the most testing that football has seen for decades. I think it's inevitable that some will go to the wall sadly.

[tomphil]

Football has needed to hit the big reset button for a long time but they just keep pumping air into the balloon on the back of media income whilst most of the cash goes straight back out again.  The price could be about to be paid, won't affect the likes of dastardly and mutley who made their money whilst the sun shone on them. Parasites like those two and many more will be laughing at it ignorant to the fact they've made the biggest contribution to the state of it all.

Football bubble and the real world might be about to move towards each other again for the first time in 30 years.

[Mattyblue]

The Deputy CMO believes we are looking at 6 months of fairly substantive  restrictions (if not a strict lockdown). 

So, the remainder of the 2019/20 season fits in where?

Edited March 29, 2020 by Mattyblue