Behind Closed Doors

Since the Premier League returned to action in mid-June, a month when the Football Association’s rules normally prohibit the game being played in England, I have only watched some brief moments of play from the live games that have been televised, and one episode of Match of The Day. It has been unusual, to say the least.

 

I saw some of was last Sunday’s encounter between Southampton and Manchester City. Saints were 1-0 up when I switched on just after half-time, and they somehow they retained that lead to record a slightly surprising victory against a City side that spent the entire second half camped just outside the home team’s penalty area. It was fascinating to watch, even if it did resemble an Attack v Defence training session.

Southampton take on Manchester City behind closed doors at St Marys. Picture: Reuters

The decision to play out the rest of the 2019-20 season, but without spectators, followed much discussion about the most appropriate method of putting the season to bed. Some options, null and void, leaving the table as it stood, calculating a final table on a Points Per Game (PPG) basis, all had their proponents and opponents. Actually playing the outstanding games was clearly the fairest option and you would have to have an extremely hard heart not to accept that Liverpool’s crowning as champions was merited, and authenticated, having been achieved on the pitch rather than a spreadsheet.

 

Every Premier League game since matches resumed is being televised, with Sky and BT Sports duopoly set aside. The BBC have screened games (the Southampton – Manchester City game was watched by 5.7 million viewers, the largest Premier League audience ever), and Sky have broadcast matches on their free-to-air channel, Pick, while Amazon Prime have also enabled non-subscribers to watch games on their channel. This has resulted in an even wider variety of kick-off times than usual (this coming Saturday there are games kicking off at 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.30pm, and 8pm).

 

The variety of kick-off times, along with the added crowd soundtrack, are just two of a number of features that are noticeably different about Premier League football during this time of coronavirus. In addition, the Premier League sanctioned a change to allow teams to make five substitutes from a bench of seven from the June restart, and drinks breaks half way through each half have been introduced in the name of player welfare.

Manchester City players take a drinks break.

Also noticeable has been the apparently spontaneous growth in the number of insignia on players’ shirts. Aside from their name on the back, the sponsors’ logos, and the club badge, teams are now sporting a Black Lives Matter logo (having initially had those words in place of players’ names), and one for the NHS. Those last two are obviously topical, and one would imagine, temporary due to the exceptional times in which we find ourselves, but temporary and exceptional changes have a habit of becoming the norm; how many of the changes that we have seen in the Premier League will become permanent, and how far down English football’s pyramid might they extend?

 

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) are expected to sanction the five substitutes rule for the 2020-21 season, a move already criticised by managers of the Premier League’s lesser lights on the basis that it favours the better sides, which inevitably it will. A permanent extension to five substitutions being allowable could mean those five selected from seven on the bench, or even from the whole of a team’s squad, as happens in the World Cup. Five substitutes is a change that I’d expect to see adopted permanently, and one that would probably filter down to the lower echelons of the game; opening up games to more players would be beneficial in keeping fringe players more engaged.

 

I am sure that drinks breaks are something that the broadcasters could get behind. Forty-five minutes is a long time for commercial networks to go without ad breaks and the idea of splitting games into thirds or quarters has raised its head in the past, so drinks breaks in Premier League, Championship, and FA Cup games that feature on TV are going to happen, even if some managers aren’t keen. Jurgen Klopp likes them, Frank Lampard and Pep Guardiola are less enthusiastic, but as we have seen before, it’s not really up to them, what with the broadcasters holding sway. Elsewhere in the game they are less likely to become commonplace, except on exceptionally hot days.

 

Flexible kick-off times, fixed solely for the benefit of broadcasters, have been a feature of top-flight football for many years. Now that even more flexibility has been introduced since those annoying spectators don’t have to be accommodated, expect that flexibility to extend as a permanent feature. While it’s unlikely that three o’clock kick offs on a Wednesday afternoon will become commonplace (Millwall are playing Middlesbrough in the Championship in a game that kicked off at that time as I write this), I would anticipate that increasing reliance on income from broadcasters will necessitate clubs accepting ever more extreme kick-off times. Broadcasters will probably also push for an end to the 3 o’clock blackout (no games can currently be televised on Saturday afternoons between 2.45 pm and 5.15 pm to avoid a detrimental effect on attendances elsewhere).

 

Although the Premier League and Championship have resumed for 2019-20, and the National League is scheduled to complete its play-offs in July and early August, there is no date set yet for the start of the 2020-21 season at any level. The prospect of non-League football being played without spectators has been ruled out, and I am sure that the Premier League would be reluctant to start the new season without fans, but guidance is presumably required from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The start of the Premier League season will be delayed as the current season will not end till August, but when it starts my guess would be that crowds will be limited to allow for social distancing, probably allowing home fans only, and possibly only home season ticket holders at that. While behind closed doors games are a necessary compromise to allow the season to finish, there won’t be an appetite to start a new season on that basis.  With limited crowds, and a slightly subdued atmosphere, perhaps piped cheers and applause are here to stay.

 

The socially distanced crowd at a game in Denmark.

Playing behind closed doors has been ruled out in non-League football, and with many clubs outside the Football League relying heavily on income from social activities and their bars, where the precautions and protocols adopted by pubs will be harder to replicate, non-League football is going to need all of the fans through the turnstiles that it can muster. Perhaps fortunately, the fact that at many non-League grounds even the best attendance of the season will represent perhaps only 30% of the ground capacity, this may not be an insurmountable problem.

 

I’m not sure whether to be reassured or worried by the lack of any proposed protocols that would cater for a second wave of coronavirus happening at some point during the 2020-21 season, whenever it may start. If none are in place when we kick off again in earnest, then we risk repeating the chaos and confusion that began in March when the season was suspended.