The EPL season must end by June 30th – but what if it doesn’t?

The suspension of the Premier League and lower Leagues has caused all sorts of problems that can only be solved by making sure the rest of the games are played by the 30th of June, which is the day that most players contracts at Arsenal and all UK clubs are either finished or renewed.

A solution must be found, and there are no shortages of recommendations of how to do it quickly, from playing all the games on the two brand new aircraft carriers that the UK have sitting idol, to having a closed-door super tournament with all games being played and televised one after the other until the final 92 games are up.

The ends of contracts or players that are on loan (like Ceballos, Cedric and Pablo Mari) or are expecting to move clubs at the end of June would certainly not want to play after that date, in case of injury jeapordizing their future plans, and of course the TV companies will not be paying out if the games are not completed as per their multi-million pound contracts.

Even if the games go ahead behind closed doors, there will be issues with refunds to season ticket holders who are locked out, and with a lot of poorer clubs already in trouble this could have ongoing repurcussions, despite the 50 million GBP relief fund already set up by the EFL to help out the worst hit clubs.

So, it is in everyones interest to try and get all these games completed, but is it even going to be even possible? There are rumours that the UK is going to go into complete lockdown from this weekend, which has already happened in most European countries. With the disease not even expected to reach peak levels until May, then when is it even going to be safe enough (or legal) for players to freely move about the country.

Could it come to a situation where we have to fit every single game into the space of one month, if everything has even calmed down by the end of May? And how will it affect us if we pass the 30th June deadline without all the games being played?

14 Comments

  1. Well Pat you ask all the right questions and right now the Prem are having fervent discussions to try to find some answers. Mankind is etremely ingenious but I feel that government dictat will prevent the early end of this season being completed. The aircraft carrier “idea” is surely fantasy though.

    I of course , have no more idea than anyone else what or when it will happen but it seems very clear to me that, try as they might, – and they certainly WILL try – the Prem ’19-20 season will not complete this side of Autumn at very best. I retain serious doubts that any more Prem games will be played this calender year, UNLESS a vaccine is found and widely used, far sooner than predicted.

  2. On a more serious note, this break from games at the Emirates allows a well earned rest for Gunnersauras. He has not missed a game since the Stadium opened in 2006 and he is clearly feeling this.Not once has he saved a penalty in the half time shoot out, FFS even Petr Cech saved one.
    I always felt that Alex Iwobi should never have been sold.He would have been ideal as a replacement for Gunnersauras. All it needed was someone who could manage to put his boots on the correct foot. On second thoughts……..

  3. Well the meejah & prem are doing their level best to try & hand the title to the #cousers no matter what it seems.crying about it every day.But reality says for many reasons it’s not practical & kicking the decision down the road to now the end of April isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference.void the season & start again.screw the scousers.Divine payback for 1985 & a five year ban from Europe for all English clubs thanks to their shannigans at Heysel.

    1. @jon fox, You really should get a grip of your bitter self. You have no rights whatsoever to try to berate someone for having a different view to yours.

      @uwot might be suffering from Jealousy, but you my friend, are suffering from waaaay worse…and I can barely find an appropriate name for you.

      Quite alright, he’s jealous, and if you are half as intelligent as you always try to portray yourself, you’d know that emotions are part of the total package of fanhood, and that includes JEALOUSY.

      Truth is, you really don’t always have to respond to views that aren’t familiar with yours, but obviously that In itself is one of the numerous challenges you can’t face.

  4. So Jon- because @uwot feels differently from you that makes him wrong and you right does it? He isn’t allowed to post his views without a broadside from you if those views are not yours? FFS Pal- I cant begin to imagine you on a bowling green, or any other team sport. Why do you continually berate posters? You need to seriously get yourself a life PAL.

  5. The season has now been extended indefinitely by the Prem League so doesn’t have to finish by June 30th.

  6. Have the Chinese who said cloroquine drug cures coronovirus found the breakthrough in treating Covid-19 patients successfully? More so, as only one new internal case of the deadly pandemic virus attack is reportedly recorded since the application of cloroquine by the Chinese to fight against the outrageous deadly virus. And the US president Donald Trump is quoted by the media to have now said the US health services will start using cloroquine drug to treat people infected with Covid-19. So, let’s wait to see how the fight by the US against Covid-19 will pan out after the Chinese now looked to have successfully treated Covid-19 pandemic outbreak with cloroquine drug experience.

    If this purported cloroquine drug application success in treating Covid-19 pandemic infection proved to be a remarkable success, then the Covid-19 outbreak can put under control, contained and stamped out completely sooner than it is being expected I will want to think. And amateur and professional club football fixures will of course resume playing but not no longer suffer the threat of cancellations.

  7. Even if we get the leagues going again, do we shut it all down again in 9/10 months time when the flu season hits? And then repeat the shut down every season?

    The whole point of this lockdown is about trying to contain the spread of the disease, and save lives. So surely we then need a lockdown every year to deal with the highly contagious, and deadly flu.

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