There are 92 games of the 2019-20 Premier League season remaining but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic means no-one knows if, or when, they...
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There are 92 games of the 2019-20 Premier League season remaining but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic means no-one knows if, or when, they will be played.
The campaign has been paused indefinitely until football is "safe and appropriate to resume", but what should happen when it is?Premier League clubs will meet again on Friday, but before then BBC Sport pundits explore the issues, options and implications of all the choices that elite club football is facing in England.
Danny Murphy
Protecting people's health is more important than anything in this world right now, but there will come a time when football starts again.
If there is a safe way of doing it, and it is behind closed doors and it can be broadcast, then I don't think everyone has realised how big an impact, and how much of a feel-good factor that can bring to people around the country - to give them something to watch, to follow, and enjoy.
If nearly 5m people watched the Virtual Grand National, then how many are you going to get watching Premier League football? It would be massive.
Chris Sutton
If there is a safe way of doing it, and it is behind closed doors and it can be broadcast, then I don't think everyone has realised how big an impact, and how much of a feel-good factor that can bring to people around the country - to give them something to watch, to follow, and enjoy.
If nearly 5m people watched the Virtual Grand National, then how many are you going to get watching Premier League football? It would be massive.
Chris Sutton
We are speculating at the moment, because no-one knows how long this lockdown is going to last.
Richard Bevan [chief executive of the League Managers' Association] says that for games to go ahead, players would have to be tested for coronavirus first. But as Bevan rightly pointed out, the priority for testing has to go to NHS workers and patients first.
Also, if Premier League games do go ahead without fans, which seems to be an idea that has snowballed and is going to happen, then there will still have to be doctors at games, and ambulances.
In two months' time, the deaths from coronavirus are not going to have stopped. They might have reduced, but how can the Premier League justify coming back and using health workers who are would otherwise be on the beat?
Even if the situation does settle down by then, those workers will still need a break if that is at all possible, mentally and physically. Yet because of the money in football, there is a clamour for it to return.
I think the right thing is to wait and see. With all industries and businesses, the urge is to get the economy back on track and going again, and of course I understand why it is the same with the Premier League - but you cannot put that ahead of people's lives, and you cannot give football special treatment either.
Ruud Gullit
Richard Bevan [chief executive of the League Managers' Association] says that for games to go ahead, players would have to be tested for coronavirus first. But as Bevan rightly pointed out, the priority for testing has to go to NHS workers and patients first.
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| Pundits Debate on EPL Fate |
Also, if Premier League games do go ahead without fans, which seems to be an idea that has snowballed and is going to happen, then there will still have to be doctors at games, and ambulances.
In two months' time, the deaths from coronavirus are not going to have stopped. They might have reduced, but how can the Premier League justify coming back and using health workers who are would otherwise be on the beat?
Even if the situation does settle down by then, those workers will still need a break if that is at all possible, mentally and physically. Yet because of the money in football, there is a clamour for it to return.
I think the right thing is to wait and see. With all industries and businesses, the urge is to get the economy back on track and going again, and of course I understand why it is the same with the Premier League - but you cannot put that ahead of people's lives, and you cannot give football special treatment either.
Ruud Gullit
Football is not as important as the well-being of people in general, and it is not more important than people who have other kind of businesses and are in huge kind of trouble. We have to try to save them all too.
But if things continue like this, then all football clubs are going to have the same sort of problems. I know people are sick of how money is everything in the Premier League but you don't want to lose any of the clubs who play in it, which is why they are trying to find a solution so they can all survive.
Pat Nevin
But if things continue like this, then all football clubs are going to have the same sort of problems. I know people are sick of how money is everything in the Premier League but you don't want to lose any of the clubs who play in it, which is why they are trying to find a solution so they can all survive.
Pat Nevin
Everyone wants answers right now, but you cannot give answers if you don't have all the information. What is a bad idea is making decisions now that may feel wrong three or four weeks down the line depending on where the pandemic goes from here.
If we are fortunate, then in the next three or four weeks, the health service will be in a much better position and we will have more information about the situation, having worked through it.
There are a variety of possibilities about what happens to the Premier League season but they are all completely and utterly dependent on timescale - if and when restrictions are lifted, and to what level.
Will they be lifted in time so you can play these games in front of fans? That seems unlikely to me. - BBC
If we are fortunate, then in the next three or four weeks, the health service will be in a much better position and we will have more information about the situation, having worked through it.
There are a variety of possibilities about what happens to the Premier League season but they are all completely and utterly dependent on timescale - if and when restrictions are lifted, and to what level.
Will they be lifted in time so you can play these games in front of fans? That seems unlikely to me. - BBC
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