I Can't See How This Season Can Be Finished

Rushing the games through after the suspension of fixtures is stupid imo, hopefully UEFA/FIFA make a unilateral decision and follow the *** idea no champions, no relegations, completed competitions stand, promote 2 or 4, then either keep the new bigger league structure or relegate the same upon completion of the following season.

But my gut is telling me they'll find a weasily way of handing the tims the title.
 
%^*& it if they want the title one off match at hampden to decide the league. Or just do the sensible thing and void all competition's for this season.
But the spl/sfa aren't known for sensible decisions and.
The mentally challengeds will kick up such a stink.
So imo only way to finish the league the top two go head to head.
 
academical said:
I haven’t had time to read the whole thread, but to answer the title, I can see a way to finish the league season.

The SFA will realise there’s going to be a lot of anger from certain quarters There will be a strong lobby to award Celtic the title. Other teams, like Dundee United, will be expecting promotion.

One way is for the SFA to convene a meeting at which they resolve to play the outstanding games, behind closed doors, and to a new, truncated schedule (2 games a week for 4 weeks, or even 3 games a week for 3 weeks).

The Scottish Cup would be abandoned. The League Cup is already complete, and would stand. European competitions are suspended.

But they need to move quickly, before more players and club staff get infected.

I don’t think this will happen. But if there’s a will to play out the season, it could.

The longer this is left, the less likely/possible it is. Within 10 weeks, too many will be infected. The season won’t go beyond May, not least due to players’ contracts expiring. Once we reach the summer, attention shifts to the new season, and making that viable.

Im struggling to find another way, which is why I reckon the season is void. League and Cup.
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A reasonable theory @academical and I note your comment about moving quickly. However, sadly, I think you underestimate how quickly coronavirus is going to grow and spread and how the national mood is going to change when the deaths start to mount. There will be no appetite for football - behind closed doors or otherwise.
 
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im predicting this season will not be finished
this virus has nowhere reached its peak
so it will be more than a three week postponement, more like
6-9 weeks., so we are into june by then and preparing for the new season.
null and void is the only answer
 
academical said:
If roles were reversed, and Rangers were 13 points clear and closing in on 55, how many on here would be saying “the season is null and void”?

The SFA/SPFL have an obligation to find a way to play out the season. Such as by the solution I proposed in post #362.

I don’t believe they have the moral courage and decisiveness to accomplish that.

I expect they will come up with a fudge that awards Celtic the title, and possibly Dundee United promotion, but resolves nothing else. Or they’ll drift leaderless for so long that they’ll end up with the season void by default. There will be plenty of anger either way.
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It doesn't matter what anyone on here thinks. We could still win the league. That is a fact. You cannot award it to a team on the basis they look likely to do so.
 
Kenny1b said:
So what would happen if the Tim’s team gets the virus and Rangers players somehow manage to dodge it. . . No way the league gets finished, behind closed doors or not.
It’s done, declare the season null and void.
SFA/ SFPL try and look after clubs the best they can financially and look at restructuring the premier league, instead of this farce of a split.
No winners. No relegation.
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Except Sporting Integrity aka SPITE disallows changing leagues without everyone understanding it at the ko of a season . Sorry .
 
DeeCeeTee said:
Where do you draw the line? Barca are 2 points ahead of Real, can you imagine if the current leaders of the league were given the title?! There is no way you can be crowned champions unless mathematically champions.
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I posted elsewhere, four of the top six leagues in Europe have six points or less between at least two teams. There is no way UEFA adopts a seasons over, current leaders are the league winners approach.
 
academical said:
Many (most?) other industries are continuing to work.

The SFA could argue playing behind closed doors, and taking other precautions, is sufficient to protect the players.

What are the alternatives? They award Celtic the title and you guys (rightly) go nuts. They declare the season void and Celtic (and others) go nuts. They can’t win.

Your last point is why I said they need to move quickly and decisively. The coming weeks will see more positive tests, more people falling ill, and more deaths. The worst is forecast to be 10-14 weeks away - that’s late May to mid June. So either they decide within a week to play out the season before the end of April, or it’ll never happen. The SFA aren’t known for their decisiveness, so my bet is it’ll never happen.
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According to reports, a Hearts player has been tested positive meaning all their players have to go into self-isolation. Also putting a risk Hearts recent opponents. This rules out playing behind closed doors. As you say, extension is unworkable given the forecasts about virus.

I actually feel sorry for the authorities on this one (though I expect that to change when they try to fudge a solution). You’re right if the shoe was on the other foot I wouldn’t be so happy to accept that voiding the season is the only solution but that doesn’t make it any less correct that it’s the only reasonable solution.
 
ChildOfGod said:
Except Sporting Integrity aka SPITE disallows changing leagues without everyone understanding it at the ko of a season . Sorry .
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Fair enough. Germans are doing it though.
Can see some clubs getting into financial troubles otherwise and despite what happened to us, this could be disastrous for Scottish football.
 
@academical and I note your comment about moving quickly. However, sadly, I think you underestimate how quickly coronavirus if going to grow and spread and how the national mood is going to change when the deaths start to mount. There will be no appetite for football - behind closed doors or otherwise.
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Plus the players themselves might have something to say about it. All it takes is for one player to be rumoured to be infected. Why should they be forced to put themselves at risk.
 
bar72bear said:
They have 11 weeks or so to play 9 games . They will cram it in somehow behind closed doors. The Scottish cup will be sacrificed
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Fraser Wishart from the PFA said last night on Clyde 1 that they won't be playing behind closed doors at all.

He said that if it's not safe enough for fans to be there then it's not safe enough for players either, given that it's a contact sport.
 
The idea that the season is going to be extended or in any way resumed and finished seems fanciful to me. This thing isn’t expected to hit its peak until 10-14 weeks time. So at the earliest end of May. And even when it peaks it doesn’t fall away sharply after that. As Valley Bluenose says above, once deaths etc start to mount the appetite for football or anything else is going to be limited. At that point even Lennon might look back and consider his comments to be crass and classless in the extreme.

Frankly, I would be surprised if season 2020/21 isn’t severely disrupted too. Hard to see how that starts on time but at least you could adjust that from the outset, say to 22 games rather than the usual 38.

I really hope I am wrong and that we are all panicking over nothing too much. But when you listen to the scientists etc talking, this stuff sounds properly scary. And the tone of the MPs is largely non party political which reinforces the view that this stuff is potentially horrific.

I strongly suspect that we will all look back and consider that getting ourselves exercised about the 2019/20 season being nul and void or otherwise will have been the least of our worries.
 
Valley Bluenose said:
A reasonable theory @academical and I note your comment about moving quickly. However, sadly, I think you underestimate how quickly coronavirus is going to grow and spread and how the national mood is going to change when the deaths start to mount. There will be no appetite for football - behind closed doors or otherwise.
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Sadly, I think you could be right.

But that’s not the situation right now. The SFA have gone from doing virtually nothing - up to Friday morning they still intended to see 50,000 fans at Ibrox tomorrow - to the extreme scenario of banning all games completely, all the way down to grassroots. My son’s under-14s are cancelled, and there’s only about 50 of us there.

I think the only chance to play out the season is to try to do it now. Behind closed doors. League only. Accelerated timetable. It looks possible by mid-April. But that could change within a week, if things get a lot worse.

The SFA are wasting the only chance they have to forestall a major rammy.

I expect the season to be declared void. But at the moment, that’s avoidable.
 
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