A&H

Top Level Postponements

P

PinnerPaul

RefChat Addict
Seems this is going to become a hot topic in the next few weeks.

Some already unhappy that some games have been allowed to be called off, but others not.

Don't think the PL and EFL help themselves by not making the rules easy to find.

The EFL say that clubs should refer to the 'Club Portal' on the 'Football Services' part of website for club requested postponements - but that isn't (to me) accessible to everyone and couldn't find anything on the PL website either.
 
A&H International
LOL, the irony of a post in As Seen on TV for games that won't be seen at all ... 😂

I think there will be some pretty urgent meetings being held between football authorities as looking pretty clear that cases are going to dwarf anything we have seen before.
 
What is it these pro’s are doing in their free time to catch positive cases and spread them?
 
Postponing the Burnley Watford game with under 3 hours before KO is rough on travelling fans
But, who cares about them. Surely a couple of extra players didn't test +ve this pm
Dunno what the answer is. Things are beginning to look bleak
Another grass roots season down the pan? Has to be a possibility, at least. Probably not, but Omicron doubling daily doesn't sound greeeattt!
 
cwyeary said:
Probably what almost everyone is doing. Eating at restaurants, going to shops and having their kids go to school?
Click to expand...

Exactly that, don't think footballers are doing anything different. I've been pinged 3 times in 6 days by the NHS app, one of those I can trace to a music gig but the other two were just going into the office. And one of those I walked in and back, so has to be from the office. All the tests I've taken are negative though.
 
PinnerPaul said:
Some already unhappy that some games have been allowed to be called off, but others not.

Don't think the PL and EFL help themselves by not making the rules easy to find.
Click to expand...

I was reading earlier this afternoon that the PL came out and said 'no more games will be postponed' and then, you watch Leicester's press conference, and Spurs where they're saying they have a threadbare squad, but had their requests turned down.

Then next thing you know, a game (Watford) is called off anyway.

Naturally, a lot of confusion in the forums from the fans.
 
Manchester United claim many cases, closed training ground (well, closed first team training, as they continued to allow academy and women to use facilities. This to me means they didn't feel the need to do a deep clean if they allowed them two groups to wander about their training facility)...
By stopping training they used the excuse of not being able to prepare. But the likes of Ronaldo kept fit at home, they probably could all do that. Not that that is relevant. Thats what got the game off.
I hear it was 4 players that came down with covid all of whom have not been regularly used.
And they have more backroom staff than anyone else I believe. 18 on the bench v Norwich.
Wonder if a lot of them too caught it and they said it was numerous including back room.
 
RustyRef said:
LOL, the irony of a post in As Seen on TV for games that won't be seen at all ... 😂

I think there will be some pretty urgent meetings being held between football authorities as looking pretty clear that cases are going to dwarf anything we have seen before.
Click to expand...
The big (unanswered) question is whether the greater number of cases, but with the majority vaccinated, 2, increasing to 3 everyday, is going to cause serious illness/death v the effect it had when we had no vaccination.

General consensus based on early evidence from SA seems to be that this variant is no worse in terms of symptoms than previous ones, so you would hope that means less serious cases, despite the number of infections being higher.
 
There seems to be an automatic assumption that teams will be cynical and "find" positive test results in order to get favourable postponements, but people don't seem to consider the other side of the coin. If postponements aren't available, that creates a strong incentive to "find" negative test results from key players so that they can play - if your main striker is already a reported covid case, isn't there an incentive to perhaps not do the testing on your main backup striker quite as thoroughly or as often as you normally would?

An incorrect excess of positives means matches get moved around and compressed later on in the season, which isn't great, but is also not the worst thing in the world. An incorrect lack of positive test results coming up on the other hand means more transmission, more illness, more long covid symptoms and potentially more death (if not likely to be the case for the majority of 20-something footballers, possibly for support staff, family etc).

As is the case in the real world, false positives are ALWAYS better than false negatives, and if we think clubs are cynical enough to fake results and exploit the rules, much better it's incentivised to be done to produce fake positives than fake negatives.
 
I find it difficult to believe clubs are 'faking' positive results. As medical records are private, I don't believe that the clubs can name the players/staff who have tested positive.

That means that its the club doctor, I assume. who has to 'sign off' the number of positive tests.

I just can't see that a qualified doctor is going to falsify results, a classic internet conspiracy theory in my view.
 
PinnerPaul said:
I find it difficult to believe clubs are 'faking' positive results. As medical records are private, I don't believe that the clubs can name the players/staff who have tested positive.

That means that its the club doctor, I assume. who has to 'sign off' the number of positive tests.

I just can't see that a qualified doctor is going to falsify results, a classic internet conspiracy theory in my view.
Click to expand...
Oh absolutely, I'm not saying I think the above is actually happening. But the point is that if you are one of those internet weirdos who thinks these results are all being faked, the correct response is still to shrug and accept it, because the other way around is worse!
 
I understand teams simply lose the game in the NFL if they can't fulfil the fixture. As @GraemeS pointed out, there are problems with both sides of the coin. Personally, I'm leaning towards the NFL model. Teams fulfil fixtures with squad players with strict rules on who is allowed to travel etc.
Nightmare
 
Brendan Rodgers comments are interesting: “We’ve still got a number of players out. We’ve got nine players out through COVID and other medical issues. In terms of COVID, we’re still where we were.”

So, 9 players out. How many are COVID and how many are other medical issues?

However, considering there is a Premier League supplier of tests (Prenetics), one has to assume that the PL are validating club claims and getting some sort of detail on those affected, while protecting confidentiality if required.
I also suspect the PL is being more strict with clubs who aren't being completely open with the information.
 
GraemeS said:
Oh absolutely, I'm not saying I think the above is actually happening. But the point is that if you are one of those internet weirdos who thinks these results are all being faked, the correct response is still to shrug and accept it, because the other way around is worse!
Click to expand...
Sorry Graeme, wasn't implying you thought that.
 
I think the announcement last night was a bit of a game changer. Whilst not calling it a lockdown, they essentially said if you want Christmas to survive don't mix from anyone outside of your household until then. Don't know if anyone else noticed, but there were a lot of empty seats in the PL stadiums the previous two evenings so there are clearly people staying away, whether through choice or being positive is unknown.

The league I'm involved in have pulled all of our games this weekend. Loads were already off as teams didn't have enough players left, plus we were regularly getting the "players don't want to kill Granny" message by playing and then having a family Christmas 6 days later.
 
Max2 said:
What is it these pro’s are doing in their free time to catch positive cases and spread them?
Click to expand...
With all the games being called off, the EPL players must have a far higher infection rate than the General Public. The numbers CV19 cases the EPL Clubs are quoting are insane. I mean, we do know that approaching half of them (players) refused the vaccine (according to the Media a few months back)
 
RustyRef said:
players don't want to kill Granny
Click to expand...
I think that was last Christmas
Vast majority of footballers would want to play. If restrictions are imposed by the Govt. then fair enough (there'll be riots like in other countries). Most young folk (footballers) do not want multiple layers of policing. I don't buy that at all. Kids in particular are desperate to get on with life. Besides, there aren't too many Grannies left now. BTW, not worth us squabbling about it as I'm fairly sure we'll have opposing views on the subject.
 
Big Cat said:
I think that was last Christmas
Vast majority of footballers would want to play. If restrictions are imposed by the Govt. then fair enough (there'll be riots like in other countries). Most young folk (footballers) do not want multiple layers of policing. I don't buy that at all. Kids in particular are desperate to get on with life. Besides, there aren't too many Grannies left now. BTW, not worth us squabbling about it as I'm fairly sure we'll have opposing views on the subject.
Click to expand...

I'm going on what clubs have told us. 50% of games were already off through a combination of Covid cases and clubs using exactly that reason - they don't want to risk infecting family at Christmas.
 
RustyRef said:
I'm going on what clubs have told us. 50% of games were already off through a combination of Covid cases and clubs using exactly that reason - they don't want to risk infecting family at Christmas.
Click to expand...
Anyway, (my) opinions on 'micro-policing' to one side for a mo. What is predictable is that of 'group psychology', or the psychology of Society as a whole. Once a few Leagues get nervous and call off, the others are on a hiding to nothing and will follow-suit pretty readily
It is staggering that 1% (maybe 2%) of us could have CV19 at this time. Yet it seems to be affecting >20% of Pro footballers going by the numbers being cited. At grass roots, it wouldn't harm to take a couple of weeks off, but it needs to come from the FA, as it's not overly fair to leave it to volunteers like yourself to make the call. Probably, we'll get an an over-reaction, but so be it.
What would be ironic, is if it's the Qatar World Cup that suffers from extended Domestic seasons. But FIFA will make sure that show remains on the road at all costs!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top