One way or another football will find a way to get back on track

There is only one cold hard fact that no one can argue about when it comes to football, no one has a clue when it will return.

That apart, everyone and their uncle has an opinion on what will happen next, will the season be cancelled? Will Liverpool be named champions? Would Arsenal get Man City’s spot in the Champions League if the season is declared null and void? And so much more.

There is a strong possibility of legal action no matter what decision is made, there will be financial implications and the integrity of this season has to have surely been compromised now.

It is going to get messy, clubs and players reputations are taking hits right now over the issue of players wages and the likes of Tottenham furloughing their staff.

Sponsors will not just walk away and accept games played behind closed doors or squashed together so brand penetration is affected, TV companies will enforce their terms and conditions I am sure and on it goes.

There is going to be huge fallout but I will make this one prediction, football will find a way to get back on track.

It will not happen overnight, it could take years but it will sort itself out and this season will soon be a memory.

There will be some serious collateral damage I am sure, not every club will survive, we will have seen some footballers play for the last time but I am as confident as I can be that in a couple of years time we will confine this period to the history folder.

24 Comments

  1. Some sound conclusions Martin about football eventually getting back on track But methinks you glossed over the huge change it will undergo in the meantime and for long afterwards too with some accurate enough dialogue but insufficient detail. The only certain thing is that football will be very different when this is over ,in that peoples attitudes towards gross greed in players and some owners will not be tolerated . And more significantly, not financially supported by buying tickets, merchandise, TV sports subsciptions etc.
    I do however give you credit for at least clearly seeing this vast change and writing about it. From those who run this site, this is a long overdue and welcome change from the likes of Patrick, whose many articles assume that football will fairly soon recommence and that it will go on exactly as before, with huge transfers in and out.
    He seems totally unaware of the subject you write about and which is the one and only news item in our country right now. HAVE A WORD WITH THE BOY, Martin please, and educate him as to how the world is and how this has turned football upside down.

  2. JF-I was talking to someone today who said “ The world has just got smaller”. I think this sums things up perfectly.
    Stay well Jon, and keep the articles coming.Superb topic headlines.

    1. You make me blush Phil, but the heartening thing is that so many of us ordinary Joes and Joannas really get this huge change and cannot wait for it.

      I have been becoming increasingly out of love with all the corrupt matters that surround and promote football, whilst still craving the ACTUAL game inself, which is as good as ever, overall. I avoided watching the last world cup in silent and perhaps vain protest at it being awarded to Russia. I will do likewise with Qatar and simply cannot stand the corporate B…..ds who run and administer football.
      Obviously I don’t any to lose the baby with the bathwater but I see a real glimmer of hope in this awful time of disease that a sizeable degree of morality may well be forced upon the game, by us “ordinary” folk, when it returns. Fingers crossed Phil! And I WISH YOU SAFETY AND GOOD HEALTH.

  3. Agreed with everything you said Jon. . People like Lineker defending these greedy footballers and himself on how quiet they’ve been while picking up 100% of their wages and clubs like Tottenham and Bournemouth looking to the Government for handouts while cutting the wages of their young staff makes me puke, sure they’re saying now “hold on, were going to donate”, only after pressure from the media. I’ll be watching closely to see how all this unfolds on whether I’ll be renewing my season ticket, my Sky and BT subscriptions. The greed now by players, football clubs, the media and every organisation connected to a once proud working class game astounds and I’m not sure whether I want to be part of its future

    1. Yes Kenny, the game still does and always has , in reality, belonged to us ordinary fans who are its guardians. We have collectively allowed the greedy corporate B…..ds to steal it from us and poison it with their corrupt greed for more and still more money and “sod the fans”! But the times are changing back and we now realise the real power we fans have to kick the corrupt mob out if only we USE IT COLLECTIVELY. I am convinced that once it returns, a large degree and return of morality and far less financial greed will beforced upon it by fans excercising the power we have. And quite possibly government too, though it will be regrettable if if comes to that. We in society have learned only too well who the REAL HEROES are these last few weeks and we have also learned who they are not.

      CHANGE IS COMING AND I CANNOT WAIT, PERSONALLY. SHAME IT TAKES A HUGE NUMBER OF LIVES TO BE LOST AND A CLIMATE OF FEAR TO REGAIN WHAT WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE LOST IN THE FIRST PLACE.

  4. Kenny-straight from the heart as usual. I would suggest that The Arsenal have always had the reputation for doing things the right way, unlike those pikeys up the road. I would trust the club to make sure the players are held to self-account and readily agree to whatever is decided, as opposed to being shamed into action. I believe that any player that doesn’t agree, at any club, should be publicly named and shamed. The lower and non league players earn a pittance in comparison to Premiere League players, and to protect everything that is so globally admired about English Football, every club should be protected by those that can afforded to do so, not by this countries government, who have far more important causes and issues to address.
    I also believe Kronke has an ideal opportunity here, to insist HIS FOOTBALL CLUB, is seen as a leading light in this crisis. But I’m not holding my breath knowing him as we now do.

  5. Well Phil, I was going add that I’m quite pleased that our own club as usual are leading the way as regards paying our young staff members, players taking a 20% cut in wages and also offering our facility’s to NHS but I didn’t want people to feel I was being bias in any way and blowing our trumpet on such a serious issue

      1. Kenny- I read earlier that Levy’s attempt to get his greedy little mints on the governments 80% wont happen as the players are still on full pay. And if the players do agree a wage cut the savings must pay the non-playing staff.What a two-bob outfit they continue to be.

  6. Phil. you know as well as I do that those youngsters who serve in the many food and drink outlets scattered around the ground and the cleaners are on a minimum wage. One cup of tea (a tea bag and hot water} is roughly what they get an hour and to stop their money whilst paying these Pre Madonnas £100,000 , £200,000 a week is outrageous, How can they look the public in the face. Water off a ducks back to those greedy B**tards

    1. That is so on point Kenny and I trust Arsenal Football Club more than most to do the right thing here. And I also trust ALL our players to remember who they play for and the values OUR club holds.

  7. Very good comments all, including Admin. There are a lot of professional clubs down the ladder who may not get through this. There are a lot of premier league clubs and footballers need to learn a massive lesson in humility and reality. Football will suffer greatly from this, like most things and people, its up to them, how greatly. Fans will not be tolerant of greed after this and football will suffer a big big wake up call. I for one already am having a different view on where football will come in my life after this. I think it could be way down my list of interests because of my perception before all this and my perception after it. There is far too much greed, waste and total lack of realism in football and all its make up. Instead of using their wealth wisely and looking to the future in the way it is distributed, they have shown a greedy side that as time goes on, i dont like more and more. I will applaud the likes of Bournemouth and Brighton in some of the things they have done, it just seems the rest are dragging their heels.

  8. Like other huge industries, football will be back, it’s a case of when, and will it look the same?

    Sadly, we may lose some smaller clubs from this, and maybe they’ll now be less financial irresponsibility.

    One of the big positives to less transfers, could be more clubs, especially the big ones, relying more on their academies. We’ve seen a lot youngsters break through this season at Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, etc, and hopefully more to come.

  9. The league should be cancelled

    a human life cannot be stop or cancelled……

    if players are willing to take say a 3 months pay cut, this issue would be solve

    these greedy players are already multi millionaires even without 3 month of wage

    1. 168,000 die per year from cancer in the uk alone. Should we cancel every season? 4000 per day worldwide from tb.

      Social distancing etc. Is too prevent the uneccessary loss of life due to the overwhelming of services. It is not some extreme measue to combat a particularly lethal virus (covid is not particularly lethal if it was it wouldnt have spread this well in the 1st place and the reactions would of been very different too.)

      Cancelling the league serves zero purpose except false virtue signalling. Certainly not a scientific, moral or logistical one.

      1. Thank you sir for this post. So sick of seeing the numbers go round and round without zero context, and an extreme culture of fear being spread globally by whom, everybody’s worst enemy at this point, the media. That’s also who has played a large part in the negativity you now feel towards the league as their money has corrupted what you so dearly loved before. It’s certainly going to take more time than we all wanted, but I for one am looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normalcy, and will look forward to games again this year.

      2. Unlike Corona virus, cancer is not spread by others with it. TB also, most often, and both are curable in most cases, esp if caught early . Corona, as right now, has no cure. Yet you trot out this silliness so blithely without a thought for those who are dying daily from this as yet, non curable disease. Exactly what kind of human would you consider yourself rto be , I sincerely wonder?

  10. Players should give something back to the fans who pay their wages ever week .players should be on £10000 a week because they can’t spend it but they won’t because they or greedy gits

  11. In some ways I hope your prediction in your last sentence isn’t that this crisis isn’t just confined to history in a couple of years.

    Yes, I would love for football and all sports to be able to resume as soon as possible because that means the virus will have been beaten. On the other hand, I would not like football to return in its present guise. Jon and others have referred to the greed as shown by so many movers and shakers in the world of football.

    Hats of to Jordan Henderson who seems to be orchestrating some action by the players, but it is all a bit late to be honest. Reputations have been tarnished, not least the Levys and Ashleys of this world who are happy to let the taxpayer pick up the bill for their stewards and bar workers.

    I am no longer part of the younger generation who really haven’t had too much hardship. Too young to have been affected by the Bank Crisis, Covid-19 is their first encounter with a different world. I was born in the late 50’s there was still a post war level of austerity and at various times since then we have lived through some deep financial depressions. This has shaped me as a person and that is why I would rather football altered the trajectory that it has been on since the advent of the PL and the subsequent obscene TV rights.

    Those who lose their jobs, possibly their homes, and may well have close family succumb to this vile virus, might just think about the bubble occupied by football players who in the main haven’t got a barking clue what it is like to be in the real world. That gormless Grealish is a product of how the football world has lost its way. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all of them as there have been great examples set by some but the financial difference between them and the average man or woman on the street I hope will become morally unacceptable.

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