I Can't See How This Season Can Be Finished

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Arminius said:
Talk of the season starting up again in 3 weeks is just fantasy.

The virus doesn’t peak it’s pandemic until April into May.

There is no chance this season is starting up again in time to finish the fixtures before contracts expire end of May. None.
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On the basis the Chinese have lied as to when this all really started, it would seem the peak is closer than we realise, and the number of currently infected will be way higher than the reported number. I don’t think we’ll necessarily resume sports in the first weekend of April in a normal fashion, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the football resumes behind closed doors around mid April, just to get things wrapped up. It might not be to a complete season, but enough to finish things off mathematically.
 
aghalee_hero said:
Honestly, how can you restart a league in September that has 2 months worth of games, then start the next one? It just won't work.
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I think they will play the remainder of this season when safe, ie starting july when season 20/21 would normally start, possibly a bit earlier if possible.

They will then finish season 2019/2020 as soon as possible.

season 2020/2021 will then start pretty much immediately and they will either reduce the amount of games in league somehow or more likely imo cancel the league cup/winter break for a season.

anyway I think we all need to get things in perspective here, family/friends lives are at risk here and football really is not the priority for the next 2/3/4 months and we shouldnt be squabbling over if/when league titles are awarded.
 
Shawlandsguy said:
Leaving loyalties aside for a minute in this time of crisis would it not make sense to simply restart this season when we're able to and to curtail NEXT season instead?
All of the championships could maybe play only half of their scheduled games next season?
I suppose the only sticking point would be the broadcasters wanting their monies worth but surely they and the leagues could come up with something.
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Clubs will be struggling financially as it is and may not survive this break. To only play 9 games or so to complete this season when this virus is over and not have a full fixture list next season would definitely have teams going under. On second thoughts, that's a great idea. :)
 
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.
 
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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What if the players are carrying the virus without knowing mate? It's 5 days they say before symptoms.
 
this season will be void, it must be, sporting integrity and all that.
if any players at all catch this virus which they will then some teams will be playing to an advantage.
this season must be forgotten and a new season 20-21 begins with the standing places of 18-19.
season 19-20 never was.
The rules were made when they decided to do us over, no league extension for europa cup final,
if it can't be finished on time then it is null and void.
 
The more I think about it the more I think the season will be finished somehow.

All the incentives for most clubs, broadcasters & associations are to find a way to get it done.

It might mean finishing this season at the start of next and playing fewer games next season, e.g by postponing the league cup for a year. It could mean an MLS style playoff over 3 weeks.

There will be a lot of highly paid people in UEFA, and broadcasters etc looking for solutions to turn a crisis into an opportunity and to keep subscribers and sponsors paying.

I could be wrong. There's obviously a lot of uncertainty about the whole situation.

Let's see what UEFA says on Tuesday.
 
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.
 
TheLoyalDug said:
What if the players are carrying the virus without knowing mate? It's 5 days they say before symptoms.
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That’s a risk we’ve already been taking.

Suppose Rangers were a few games short of clinching 55 - would you glibly accept the season being voided?
 
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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academical said:
That’s a risk we’ve already been taking.

Suppose Rangers were a few games short of clinching 55 - would you glibly accept the season being voided?
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but were not.
 
I’ve sat and thought about it this morning myself-
Me neither.

The only things that’s certain at this stage, is no settling decision they enforce, can make everyone happy. Decisions to prematurely promote and relegate clubs up and down the country will result in lawsuits, running into millions of pounds and years of time.

Thus, the simplest way for UEFA to actually resolve it, is to draw a line under it-

It’s a once in a generation world event, the season didn’t finish so it didn’t start. The amount of points you’ve amassed this season don’t matter a f*ck, as a bolt from the blue occurred that believe it or not, is actually more important than football. The End.
 
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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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This is how I see it all panning out. There will be a strong will from certain quarters to get it finished someway.
 
I don’t know about the rest of you, I do find it hilarious that the puddle drinkers could lose out on a title through a void season. However, no football on at any league at any level means I’m going to be dragged about the shops every weekend and I think I’d rather roll the dice on succumbing to the virus than suffer that.
 
academical said:
That’s a risk we’ve already been taking.

Suppose Rangers were a few games short of clinching 55 - would you glibly accept the season being voided?
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Of course we wouldn’t but do you think celtic fans would be saying hand them the title etc?
Our main gripe if you will is celtic among others clubs pleaded to the hills about sporting integrity and season can’t be extended etc back in 2008.
You can’t have it both ways I’m afraid
 
Orange said:
Not what I want to happen but from the wording of the SPFL rules it looks like they could award a winner of each Scottish league but not promote or relegate anybody in the event of abandoning the league. The relegation clause has wording to say following completion of all matches. The champion club only needs to occupy position one at the end of the season. With that wording they could be awarded the title on a technicality if "the end of the season" is determined to be now.

  1. The Club occupying position one in the League at the end of a Season shall be declared the Champion Club of the League


  1. At the end of each Season (following completion of all League Matches in the Premiership in that Season) the Club in position 12 in the Premiership shall be relegated to play and be eligible to participate in the Championship for and during the next Season.
Different models are showing a different peak for this. But the two that have been displayed on the news shows April/May or May/June as the peak. No way this is going to kick back off. The football leagues have went above and beyond government advice. Government advice will get more restrictive in the coming months.
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Further to this, notice the capitalisation of “Season” which means it is given the definition defined in the document. Or in this case

“Season means the period of the year commencing on the date of the first League Match in a Season and ending on the date of the last League Match in the same Season or otherwise as determined by the Board and which excludes the Close Season;”

The bit in bold is a worry, it means the Board can decide when the Season is over.

For completeness, the Board is defined as:

“Board means the board of Directors of the Company or where the board of Directors of the Company has made an appropriate delegation in accordance with the Articles the Chairman, Chief Executive or a committee of the Board;”

These two thing together make it look to me that if the Board decide the Season is over, they will be deemed Champions.
 
Rfc loyal said:
Of course we wouldn’t but do you think celtic fans would be saying hand them the title etc?
Our main gripe if you will is celtic among others clubs pleaded to the hills about sporting integrity and season can’t be extended etc back in 2008.
You can’t have it both ways I’m afraid
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Absolutely. I’m not silly, had the roles been reversed we would be saying very different things indeed. But so would they. It’s the way it is. And unfortunately they have absolutely no rule or legal mechanism which will give them a title they haven’t yet won.
 
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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They have a duty of care to protect the players. If all other industries are shutting down as per a national emergency, sports institutions will be no different.

They couldn’t set an arbitrary timeline of extra games per week (over the coming month or two), the epidemiological projections suggest an infection peak over this period!
 
Ponientebear said:
Raging and abusing people and going mental about nothing?
Nothing? The rest of the season is finished, it doesn’t matter what UEFA’s plans are, they will be dictated by this crisis and by all likelihood it will mean no football season will restart, stick up for conjecture and guessing game opinions all you want but the guy I’m suppose to be abusing and your defence of him at this present time aren’t really living in the real world.
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I completely agree about the rest of the season being finished and that we are in a crisis. The point is I think the guy you're going mental at probably does too and you're jumping the gun at his comments and massively misinterpreting his attitude.
 
Despite the gravity of the situation I think they will still find a way to ensure the establishment club get the title.
 
Ponientebear said:
Raging and abusing people and going mental about nothing?
Nothing? The rest of the season is finished, it doesn’t matter what UEFA’s plans are, they will be dictated by this crisis and by all likelihood it will mean no football season will restart, stick up for conjecture and guessing game opinions all you want but the guy I’m suppose to be abusing and your defence of him at this present time aren’t really living in the real world.
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He says countries are saying April and he says there's a meeting on Tuesday. It is a fact that countries are saying April and it is a fact that there is a meeting on Tuesday. That's all the guy is saying. He probably agrees that things are extremely unlikely not to go well beyond that. He at no point says he thinks things won't go beyond that. And neither have I. My point is you have misinterpreted him. If that's still not clear enough then continue to go off yer heed at things you aren't reading properly
 
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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Would look utterly ridiculous when they have stated that the decision has been made in interest of safety of players and officials. So we will let them continue and at that we will even expose them to greater risk by increasing schedule so that more direct contact with more opposition players and match officials takes place over a shorter period of time!
 
Don’t think we should let players and their contracts cloud the issue. The clubs will still be there even if it is with different personnel.

The league could be completed when football is resumed, even as far off as September.

To accommodate that the 20/21 season could be played as a 22 game play each other home and away once league.

They could also complete the Scottish Cup and cancel next season’s League Cup.

Sorting out Europe games may take some more thought.
 
Noooo nine in a row

No treble to sadden my eyes

Just a cough and a sneeze

Sent by the Chinese

And the tims finish up with zero
 
Aurelius72 said:
They have a duty of care to protect the players. If all other industries are shutting down as per a national emergency, sports institutions will be no different.

They couldn’t set an arbitrary timeline of extra games per week (over the coming month or two), the epidemiological projections suggest an infection peak over this period!
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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.
 
academical said:
That’s a risk we’ve already been taking.

Suppose Rangers were a few games short of clinching 55 - would you glibly accept the season being voided?
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It doesn't matter what we think because we all know that is exactly what would happen.
 
If the seasons are cancelled for at least a month and teams haven't been training etc, most teams will require a 'mini pre season' in order to get up to speed again. I just don't really see how they can cram this all in and start next season at the usual dates.
 
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”?
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I totally agree.

However the precedent has been set by the governing body as long ago as the 30's, and by Celtic in their statements as recently as 2008. It cannot be argued that both cannot have it both ways, otherwise it shows clear favouritism.
 
the way i see this uefa will make the decision on what happens not the individual football associations, and the only conclusion that they can come to is void the league season for all ,they cant have one country awarding a team the title and another one not ,as we know uefa are money orientated and will not be wanting legal action taken against them
 
Lawsome said:
I totally agree.

However the precedent has been set by the governing body as long ago as the 30's, and by Celtic in their statements as recently as 2008. It cannot be argued that both cannot have it both ways, otherwise it shows clear favouritism.
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Extending the season isn’t an option. Not because of precedent: this is an unprecedented crisis. But because a) the pandemic is forecast to be at its worst from late May to mid June, and b) players’ contracts run out at the same time.

By June, the focus will be on how we can ensure season 2020/21 goes ahead. Not a given, at the moment.

Either the SFA act to play out the current season in restricted circumstances - closed doors, players & essential staff only, no families, no media - and a lightning fast schedule (a decision in the next few days could mean all games played by 15 April)

Or the season will inevitably be void.

Inertia will likely ensure the second option. Cue Celtic going nuts and demanding the title. Possibly citing the neighbouring example of Liverpool being awarded the English title (if that happens, as it could).
 
I can't see the current seasons being voided. Liverpool for example are 2 games away from their first title since nineteen canteen can you imagine the furore. And yes there would be fallout despite this being a serious health crisis.

Either the league will be resumed to conclusion or current standings will be honoured.
 
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
 
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”?
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i would, this is more serious any title win. I dont get this idea we need to have a winner/loser when the world faces a major health issue. Drop everything and lets hope we can maybe restart sometime this year.

I cant imagine there being any games, behind closed doors, its too big a risk imo to be playing contact sports for the next while.
 
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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