Davefevs

I think you’re onto something here. I’m not sure of the legalities, nor have I read the Abraham and Deeney stories in any detail other than the basic premise that they have family health concerns. As a minimum I think the clubs have to treat them as “unavailable” to allow the rest of the squad to continue. Things happen. Look at Benik, he’d have been given time to himself when his daughter tragically passed away (RIP Amora). So Watford and Chelsea can treat their cases a bit like compassionate leave....if that means pay them in full, so be it. If the player is truly worried (no reason to doubt that) then they’d not be in the best place mentally to train and play anyway. This isn’t about individual nuances, it’s about the team and the league. An individual can’t stop the club playing.

so, if it can't be shoe-horned, end it now....how would you decide final league placings?

If by scrapping, you mean null and void, expunging records, etc, I’m with you...that imho is the last of last resorts. As above, the season can be “ended” and lots of options available from: - ppg, etc - no relegation (or promotion) - and variations of the above to determine final placings. Unless we can finish by end of July, I’d “end” it now. Even if we do start again say mid-June, the EFL must (in my opinion) at least decide what rules they are going to use if it has to stop again, because there is a real chance it might need to stop. I’d probably end it now, and focus on preparing for next season. That is a different view to what I had 2 months ago, but things have changed.

I got to do one of the random tests today. Not as bad as I thought. Makes you gag a bit.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I meant club to club performance related add-ons, e.g. Brighton paid us £100k because Webster played 10 games. I made that up, but I can’t see City having to pay that back. Does that make sense?

There’s a null and void from a “records” perspective, and there’s a null and void from a contractual / legal perspective. I don’t know the answer, but I cannot believe a club would claim back a performance related add-on just because records expunged. But who knows, I could easily be wrong. ?

That story was “blown up” out of all proportion ?

The Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Mönchengladbach match had some strong tackles, and a few late studs over the top. I think we saw less fuss being made, less haranguing of the referee....thus making it seem a bit played down.

We do have stats for recoveries....but hospital recoveries only. Whitty and Vallance suggested in the past week that they ought to be published....but we haven’t seen any.

Not arguing your point as I haven’t looked at age related figures, but on a separate issue in the case of people carrying Covid: 0.27% of people on average are carrying the virus at any one point (see yellow bubble below), broken down into 0.22% of people in households 1.37% of people in care jobs Basically you’re 6 times as likely to be carrying the virus if you’re in a care role. That may sound obvious, e.g. you’re more at risk, but then add in you’re supposed to have PPE, processes to extra clean, vigilant etc, it doesn’t look great.

I’m pretty much resigned to City missing out if games don’t restart, because none of the PPG methods work for us, however.... ....Peter Loehman, a Danish, Sheffield Wed fan, who I follow on Twitter has come up with another method. His method is less about finishing the remaining 100+ games and buying some time to complete a new form of playoffs. Ultimately, he proposes more of an elimination type playoff, where we get a one off chance away to Forest. if we win that we’d go into a 2 legged play off. It basically gives clubs down to 8th (in Peter’s model we fall below Millwall based on the strength of our remaining fixtures) a chance. Ditto for the clubs in relegation battle. It basically requires 14 matches to be played, instead of the 113.

Yes. Approx a 1/5th of season ticket income (approx £3.0-3.5m).

£700k was my estimate of City’s refund.

Ditto, for antibody tests too

Utopia capacity is circa 120k I believe. Say there are 100 testing centres all with capacity for 1000 per day (just for the maths purposes), plus say 20k being posted, totals 120k. They might post 20k every day, but getting 1000 people through each centre every day is not likely, meaning capacity should probably be set at a lower figure. You’ve then got to get the tests processed. That also seems to be an issue, hence why 50k got sent to the US. I have no probs with this, just be transparent that the labs are overwhelmed. In an ideal world, they would be better metrics (the current set are not “world leading” as alleged). You’d see granularity such as: no of tested posted out / no of posted tests returned / no of tests returned processed by lab / no of positive / no of negative results (from all of this you’d see success rates, lag from post, lag from lab) no of tests at tests centres / no of tests processed by lab / no of positive / no of negative ditto at hospital ditto at care home all of the above broken down by number / people / date Presently the data presented to us mere mortals is unintelligible. Today 120k tests / 70k people are not necessarily linked. Imho it’s data being presented to mask what is really going on, to avoid real scrutiny and therefore accountability. We’ve no idea how many postal tests have been returned for example. If that’s public apathy to return it, then call out the public, not the government. If it’s because the lab is full, then call that out, or at least explain. As a Business Analysis the common requirements given to me by the business are - “I want lots of MI”. That’s why we have what we have today, because nobody has asked, what do we want to measure, how often, who wants it, for what purpose, etc etc.

Ta, thought it was harsh otherwise. ??????

I thought it was stated last night that you couldn’t travel to other parts of the UK, ruling out England to Wales or vice-versa?

yep, although you'll then have people moaning the 12v11 home v away. Nightmare

Certainly the higher you go, I can see players foregoing a 1 our 2 month deal to wait for the proper window. Lower down the leagues some might be grateful for a couple of months to keep themselves in the shop window. Delicate times though.

That was gonna be my next Q....because our 24th game wasn't Leeds, so I suspect some were out of sequence.

Out of interest when Charlton had played 23, had everyone else also played 23....seem to recall Forest having a game to catch up from earlier in the season?

It certainly shows appetite to try to finish.

BBC report that premier league players out of contract on 30.06 can mutually agree to extend until “end of season”

I firmly believe that “null and void” is last resort....75% of the season played. Plus financially a disaster if broadcasters clawback £millions already advanced. If it comes to that, football will not be 4 divisions, 91/92 clubs. Assuming games cannot resume (looking pretty likely imho), then unless there a better / fairer statistical model out there, then home and away adjusted points per game should be used across PL / EFL. That sorts out final league positions....including relegation spots. Once that is done, onto the playoff positions. If no games are possible, then I would give promotion to the team in highest position. I did think about using head to head between the four playoffs teams, but as they won’t have played each other home and away, that’s gonna be contentious, so as above. Is it unfair, yes, but nothing is gonna be perfect....but it provides a solution....and it overcomes: 30.06 contract issues (inc loan player issues)...we are getting too close, clubs are already releasing players early how do you get on with next season I’m glad it doesn’t bias our own position, which too many fans have built their own solutions on. In terms of next season, assuming that can kick on in September behind closed doors I’d consider breaking into two (initially)....north and south. You play the 11 other teams home and away behind closed doors to make sure it’s fair. By 2021, when hopefully stadiums are open, you then play the other 12 teams home and away, so nobody turns around and says we had to play x at home with no fans, but then had to play them at their place in front of 25k. I’m sure it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s a potential concept.

I guess Bundesliga could push back another week to give them time to complete isolation. Re Prem League, Steve Parish was on Andrew Marr this morning. He actually talk sensibly. He doesn’t say “we must do this”, “we can’t do that”....he just talks about there being options, some of them preferred, some not in his opinion. Big meeting tomorrow!!!