Bill Shankly v The Coronavirus

The late Bill Shankly’s much-quoted remark, that football is a more important matter than life or death, seems grotesquely inappropriate right now. With the world gripped by coronavirus, worrying about football, or any other sport for that matter, seems trivial.

The fact that all over the globe, football leagues have ground to a halt has provoked the press and the general public to speculate on how the 2019-20 season will be concluded, or whether it will be abandoned, and there are times when I get frustrated by the blithe manner in which matter is being discussed, as though this coronavirus thing is a minor inconvenience, and that there is some definite end date in sight. At other times, however, I realise that as a diversion from the almost universally depressing news and the sometimes hysterical postings on social media, trying to work out what will happen with the football season is therapeutic and diverting.

The English Football League (EFL) have today (Wednesday, 18^th March), announced that “in order to protect competition integrity” (how the EFL love that phrase, they use it to justify everything they do, whether it’s popular or not) they intend completing this season’s competition. The critical question here, of course, is when? The EFL season is supposed to conclude on 2^nd May but currently all matches are postponed, and while they are slated to restart on 4^th April, few think this is practical. (Edit: Since I wrote this, The Football Association has agreed that the current season can be "extended indefinitely" and the Premier League and English Football League have extended the suspension to 30th April at least).

The Premier League have, along with other European leagues, agreed with Uefa a target of completing their programmes by 30^th May. That seems equally as ambitious and just as impractical as the EFL’s 2^nd May deadline. Lower down football’s pyramid, non-League football, in competitions such as the National League and below, the final day of the regular season is 25^th April, with play-off matches following hard on that day’s heels. Even were these leagues to restart on 2^nd April, some clubs would be faced with having to play thirteen games in twenty-one days. In the past, when there have been fixture backlogs caused by the weather, and this season has been particularly blighted by the rain that has seen clubs like mine, Romford FC, have eleven games postponed due to waterlogged pitches, The FA has always refused to extend the season. In the unlikely event that football recommences in April, they will have little choice to extend unless they take one of the other proposed options that have been mooted to finish the season.

The pitch at Brentwood Town's ground, which Romford share, has been a sea of mud since November

The options that have most frequently been offered up in deciding how to treat the 2019-20 season are: Declare it null and void; Have the current league table as the final table; Conclude the season at some future date; Calculate the final placings on a points-per-game basis.

There are pros and cons to all of these ideas, and Uefa’s plan for what we might call elite football may not be suitable for leagues below the EFL, or even below The Championship. Come the end of April, many players are out of contract, and in non-League football especially, grounds are not always still available. Extending the season will inevitably mean delaying the start of the next if for no other reason than pitch maintenance work needs to be done, otherwise next season will be even more at the mercy of the weather.

Freezing the league tables now might be just about justifiable in those where matters are nearly settled anyway – Liverpool’s lead in the Premier League is virtually unassailable, for example, and every team in that division has played 28 or 29 games – but in divisions where promotion and relegation hangs in the balance and teams have played wildly differing numbers of games, it would be more difficult to accept. Take the BetVictor Isthmian League’s North Division, where clubs have between nine and thirteen games remaining. At least in that division the title looks nailed on to go to Maldon & Tiptree, but any number of clubs could qualify for the promotion or relegation play-off spots; it would be unjust to use the current table to determine the final positions. A more equitable method to calculate the final placings would be on a points-per-game basis, although this might disadvantage clubs who have relatively easy games remaining.

The BetVictor Isthmian League North table as it stands...

...and  how it would look on a Points-per-Game basis

It has been suggested that the Premier League may play remaining fixtures behind close doors over a short period at a select number of grounds, but with the conditions that caused football to be suspended in the first place looking unlikely to abate any time soon, that may not be possible in the short to medium term; Uefa’s date of 30^th May remains overly optimistic in my view. That option may not be viable to non-League football, where the idea that this season is concluded whenever is practical, even if that means a hiatus until September and playing the remaining games then, with a  revised format for 2020-21 then introduced, has a good deal of support.

All of the proposals for the conclusion of this season and the format for the next assume one thing however, and that is that whenever football starts again, all of the clubs, and players who are currently in stasis, are able to start playing the game again. For players, even training is on hold – all of the county Football Associations around the country have put a block on it – so a period not dissimilar to pre-season would be required for players before the leagues could start again.

More significantly however, is the question of which clubs may not survive this hiatus. National League side Barnet, and League One club Gillingham have both issued statements to the effect that their futures are uncertain due to the financial implications of the coronavirus, and they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally fears for the club's future.

More gruesomely, the non-League game may be hit by a double whammy. Not only are many clubs going to find themselves in perilous financially dire straits, the demographic of the people who run and support many of these clubs overlaps significantly with the sector of the population that is most at risk from coronavirus. Brutally put, some clubs may find themselves lacking the people in the administrative roles that they rely on most when football starts again. If – and it’s a big if – the elderly, whether healthy or not, are asked to self-isolate for the periods that have been suggested (12-16 weeks), but football recommences before that elapses, a lot of clubs – who rely almost entirely on volunteers – will struggle to find people to fill key roles.

At least non-League football can be enjoyed while still practising social distancing.

Given the situation we find ourselves in fretting over, or merely pondering on how the football season will be concluded may appear inconsequential. Football may not after all, be a matter of life or death, but it can take our minds off the things that are.