Rotherham United fans will be disappointed to hear that football has been suspended until at least the 30th April – though, if we are being honest, not really surprised.
Due to the coronavirus football throughout England was already on hold until the beginning of April but today it has been announced that the suspension is now going on until the end of next month – though, personally (and it is only a personal thought) I can’t see it happening then either.
It was announced yesterday that the Premier League are going to push, in a meeting today, to finish the season but how and when has not been decided.
Meanwhile the EFL have said they will release a £50m short-term relief fund to help clubs with cash-flow problems due to the virus while the Leasing.com Trophy Final which was due to take place on Sunday, 5th April between Portsmouth and Salford City has been postponed.
So what does this postponement mean? For Rotherham it could be that, if the season starts again in the first week of May there will be Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday games to get the eight games in during May which could mean that the play-off games and final could be in June. Or it could mean that the season finishes at the end of May and we don’t have any play-offs meaning the top three teams would be promoted and the bottom three go down. Or it could be that the season is extended until July or beyond which could have an impact on the start of next season.
Then there is the problem of ‘player contracts’ with any players out of contract/on loan being so until the end of the season – much too complicated for me to understand to be honest.
All I can say is that I don’t think there is going to be a quick easy fix – all this because of a bat in China eh.
Caz, as a fan I’m not “disappointed” with a further postponement because in my view (personal of course) you’d have to be bonkers to attend until the virus is under control. I’m at fairly high risk, my wife is higher risk and our daughter is pregnant with her second child; football is way down my priorities. If you ask me no games will be played before September. The only sensible course of action is to award each team “virtual” points for all remaining games based on the factor they achieved in the games they played. So for example a team that had played 35 games in a 46 game season and has 64 points would get 64 divided by 35 (1.829) times 46 equalling 84 points. You could do the same with GD. On this basis us and Coventry would go up. Play-offs scrapped and third placed team on the calculation goes up to.
Of course you are right Kevin, football has to take a back seat for a lot of us now. I just don’t know how the season is going to pan out – finish as it is, finish later, cancel altogether but if we do eventually resume this season I don’t think there will be any play-offs. Take care, Kevin.
Cheers Caz and same to you. A few weeks ago I was thinking how good this year was turning out if the lads got promoted, Snooker World Championship, Euros and Olympics on the box – Heaven. What a bummer!
That’s what ya get with thinking!!!