With the increased infection rate of the new strain and its prevelance in young people its hard to see many youth teams/leagues wanting to continue at the moment
Intra-Tier-3 OA Football
- Thread starter Big Cat
- Start date
With the increased infection rate of the new strain and its prevelance in young people its hard to see many youth teams/leagues wanting to continue at the moment
I don't think this is unexpected. Over & above any other restriction, this is the one thing the Govt. took sustained criticism over when introducing Lockdown-2. They backed down and conceded that the benefits to young people's health exceeded the risk to the old folk
Facebook suggests the teams I know of are keen to get going asap
But only as one on one.....
You can only meet one other person nor from your household. This allows 2 balls in golf; singles in tennis, etc
We will be going back to the terms of the original lockdown before long. This new variant is clearly very serious, and with countries rushing to close their borders to the UK it seems that Kent is in danger of becoming known as the new Wuhan. Based on Matt Hancock's comments this morning the high tiers aren't going away any time soon and he seemed to suggest it will need the full vaccine rollout to all vulnerable people before the reigns are taken off, which would be curtains for the grass roots and semi-pro football seasons.
Was only a matter of time
Quite a number of grim football predictions (on this forum) have come to pass. Assume January was wiped out by light frost or mizzle (not uncommon), would we be talking about the end of grass roots football? I can see a realistic resumption by Feb with a very late end to the season and lots of midweek games on rock hard ground
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Guess they have to prioritize giving the Leagues the best possible chance of reaching a conclusion
I wish I shared your optimisation but I just can't see it. Massive increase in transmission, large percentage of people not following rules, people heading off all over the country for Christmas even though they aren't allowed, it almost feels like we are back in March again. It will only be a matter of days before the whole of the UK goes into tier 4, whether they call it that or lockdown 3.0 is neither here nor there. It took over three months to sort it out with a full lockdown, so I'm not really sure why anyone would think these half baked tiers will fix it in a couple of months. Even more so as January is always the worse month for flu related hospital admissions and deaths.
The government are even repeatedly saying that things will start to return to normal after Easter, and some ministers have hinted or even suggested that the higher tiers will remain in place until then. The only question for me is whether leagues will be able to complete after Easter, yes the season can be extended but at grass roots pitches are lost to cricket starting at the end of March.
There is no seasonal flu, almost literally. In either hemisphere. Social Distancing has killed it. Flue R of 1.5 has failed to cut it
All depends how fast they can get that vaccine into those with advanced wrinkles. Best football month to lose is January. Not forgetting, Boris faces unreal pressure to ease measures wherever possible too. Hospitality will probably be completely screwed until Easter, but not so outdoor sports
I'm not sure that's the case but even if outdoor sports are allowed to continue, im sure thay alot of teams/leagues won't want to do so whilst in lockdown or tier 4
The players and teams won't sack it off. The Leagues might know what's best for us however. Like VAR, re-refereeing the game
Certainly makes sense to consider ditching the Vase. Then League Cups (of those that remain) will bite the dust
(Most, probably all) Leagues will finish, you heard it here first
Nothing to stop them running into the early summer
A lot will depend on the review on 30th Dec. This may extend Tier 4, which will be the end of chances for some leagues; staying in the existing Tiers could be simply delaying the decision to scrap the season.
Leagues operating across Tiers may have 75% of Tier 2 team's matches played but less than 50% of Tier 3 matches.
It will be a simple case of watch what Boris does next. If they are able to play, cricket will not give any leeway on use of joint facilities since they lost last summer. I fear the season will be scrapped again, simply as this may be the easiest choice.
Leagues operating across Tiers may have 75% of Tier 2 team's matches played but less than 50% of Tier 3 matches.
It will be a simple case of watch what Boris does next. If they are able to play, cricket will not give any leeway on use of joint facilities since they lost last summer. I fear the season will be scrapped again, simply as this may be the easiest choice.
Justylove
RefChat Addict
The supply league I'm on has teams needing anywhere from 24-28 games needed to complete the full season and around 16-20 games to get to 75% for PPG to kick in. The next review for this league is 18th Jan, meaning that the earliest restart would be 25th Jan. That would leave 4 months or 17 weeks to complete the games assuming everyone can take part. That would be doable, however the moment you add in more time off you quickly start to get to 2 games per week, every week. It's possible as only 1 area this league covers is currently in Tier 4.
The contrib league is worse, they've completed 8 out of a 38 game season so far. It also covers a much wider area with more teams in Tier 4.
Sadly I can't see the Tiers being relaxed to allow football to restart.
The contrib league is worse, they've completed 8 out of a 38 game season so far. It also covers a much wider area with more teams in Tier 4.
Sadly I can't see the Tiers being relaxed to allow football to restart.
Is that League Games only? Sounds like they're screwed regardless. Maybe those games on wet grass shouldn't have been called off after all
Justylove
RefChat Addict
Yep league only, not counting any cups.
Supply league has only 2 teams in Tier 4, BUT there are a load of teams just outside of the Tier 4 area (Portsmouth) which have players and staff that come from inside the current Tier 4 zone.
They'd almost be better off putting the season out of its misery now and say we'll plan to restart next season afresh.
Such a decision would be premature I'd say
A lot of potential water for an unknown sized bridge at this stage. Reading today, something like 17 genetic differences to this new mutation. Quite possible, it could be a less deadly strain? If you're a virus, spreading your oats is the name of the game, not killing your host. Also, kids and schools seemly explain why restrictions didn't work. Adults outside may not be anything like a significant consideration
Justylove
RefChat Addict
Lots of maybes and possibilies in that post. Initial reports show that there is increased infection in under 15's but not yet enough scientific evidence to draw conclusions.
I'm sure that at some point there will be enough evidence to prove either way what this new strain means, whether it's increased transmissibility at the expense of lethality or not. Reality is that for this football season the clock is ticking to be able to get the games in.