Tekel Towers » The Scottish Leagues have to be suspended

Tek · 12/3/2020 11:28 pm

For one month imo.

Rather than pushing on with this ludicrous idea of finishing the season behind closed doors.

If the SFA/SPFL push on with the latter then there is a very grave and real threat that many teams could go under in the next 2 months.

Teams that live and die by their modest gate receipts.

Thoughts everyone?

David_Blunkett · 12/3/2020 11:59 pm

Right, so.....

Play behind closed doors, clubs make no money, clubs could fold.

Suspend the leagues, clubs make no money, can't afford to pay players during the enforced break, clubs fold.

Unless i'm missing something?

What if they decide to further suspend as the containment measures don't work?

Closed doors with the option to pay to stream games would be what I prefer.

japanarab · 13/3/2020 12:03 am

Agree with that. Closed doors and paid streams. Just takes one player, coach or member of staff to get it and that will be that mind you.

Beardy23 · 13/3/2020 12:34 am

arteta( arsenal manager) confirimed as having virus, emergency FA meeting tomorrow, looking like suspention of EPL. Would expect muppets at SPFL to follow whatever the English do rather than taking responsibility themselves.

Tek · 13/3/2020 12:39 am

David_Blunkett wrote:
Right, so.....

Play behind closed doors, clubs make no money, clubs could fold.

Suspend the leagues, clubs make no money, can't afford to pay players during the enforced break, clubs fold.

Unless i'm missing something?

What if they decide to further suspend as the containment measures don't work?

Closed doors with the option to pay to stream games would be what I prefer.

The loss of revenue in the intervening month would be hard, but really you'de just be bringing the 'off-season' forward and then instead, playing through the Summer.

Also any losses in the interim would imo be offset in the following few weeks by higher attendances. Supporters simply missing their buzz and feeling re-invigorated to see out their teams season.

Plus, it's surely better that these small clubs can play out their fixtures and re-coup their gate receipts? Because i very much doubt that the likes of Stranraer, Elgin or Brechin have a facility whereby they can stream live matches.

It is inparticular these smaller type clubs i am talking about that would otherwise have zero income over the next two months and would be therefore hoping that their players play for free etc.

Tek · 13/3/2020 2:23 am

It just seems if UEFA have the interests of the clubs, supporters and Fair Play in mind (and that as fellow Dundee United supporters should always be something we pride ourselves upon), they will take the lead in advising that....

1) The suspension of ALL European Leagues, cups and tournaments for 1 month
2) Push the Euro's to Summer of 2021 and use the free Summer to complete this season's leagues/cups/Champions League/Europa across Europe.

Anything else isn't football as we know it. And downgrades this great sport.

P.s. it has to be UEFA who take the lead here btw.

TheShed · 13/3/2020 4:59 am

They’re not expecting this to peak until June, if that’s accurate it’s going to be longer than a month. If that’s accurate they probably don’t have a choice but to suspend everything. If that’s accurate then clubs will go bust in Scotland. It’s a unique and scary situation if the experts predictions are accurate and if they are I think football will be the last thing on most of our minds tbh.

Yes there’s a lot of IF’s in there because I have no idea if they’re right or not.

CCX2 2010 · 13/3/2020 7:11 am

Closed doors and stream for me.

bowers · 13/3/2020 7:22 am

Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

Beharder · 13/3/2020 7:24 am

We need some leadership at the top. Not our govt. desperate to be different than England. As it stands no football in Scotland from Monday but England can carry on.
Fans travel from everywhere to watch Liverpool but Brechin v Cowdenbeath has to go.
All off until further notice IMO

bowers · 13/3/2020 7:27 am

Tek wrote:
It just seems if UEFA have the interests of the clubs, supporters and Fair Play in mind (and that as fellow Dundee United supporters should always be something we pride ourselves upon), they will take the lead in advising that....

1) The suspension of ALL European Leagues, cups and tournaments for 1 month
2) Push the Euro's to Summer of 2021 and use the free Summer to complete this season's leagues/cups/Champions League/Europa across Europe.

Anything else isn't football as we know it. And downgrades this great sport.

P.s. it has to be UEFA who take the lead here btw.

And if its not over in 1 month? do we extend by another month? When does it end? Do we extend again?
We could potentially not play another game from Saturday till end of May/June. Do we then start the 2020/21 season in September and cram in extra midweek fixtures?

Billy_Hainey · 13/3/2020 7:40 am

Beharder wrote:
We need some leadership at the top. Not our govt. desperate to be different than England. As it stands no football in Scotland from Monday but England can carry on.
Fans travel from everywhere to watch Liverpool but Brechin v Cowdenbeath has to go.
All off until further notice IMO

Things moving as quick as this shit is spreading. Looks like moves are afoot to suspend the EPL.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport//football/51867854

Beharder · 13/3/2020 7:45 am

Billy_Hainey wrote:
Beharder wrote:
We need some leadership at the top. Not our govt. desperate to be different than England. As it stands no football in Scotland from Monday but England can carry on.
Fans travel from everywhere to watch Liverpool but Brechin v Cowdenbeath has to go.
All off until further notice IMO
Things moving as quick as this shit is spreading. Looks like moves are afoot to suspend the EPL.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport//football/51867854

That's it Bill leaders get together and make a unified decision. For me the season should now be over, takes away the uncertainty.

TheShed · 13/3/2020 7:47 am

bowers wrote:
Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

Mate most of the clubs in league 2/3 mostly survive week to week, they need that money desperately or they’ll be relying on directors bailing them out and they don’t all have people who can afford or be willing to do that. That’s not complete pish, it’s absolutely the way these clubs have to work.

As for how long a suspension lasts, as long as it needs to for public health to be fixed. The experts, not the politicians, are saying 80% will get it, they’re also saying it won’t peak until June. Some things are more important than football.

Billy_Hainey · 13/3/2020 7:50 am

Beharder wrote:
Billy_Hainey wrote:
Beharder wrote:
We need some leadership at the top. Not our govt. desperate to be different than England. As it stands no football in Scotland from Monday but England can carry on.
Fans travel from everywhere to watch Liverpool but Brechin v Cowdenbeath has to go.
All off until further notice IMO
Things moving as quick as this shit is spreading. Looks like moves are afoot to suspend the EPL.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport//football/51867854

That's it Bill leaders get together and make a unified decision. For me the season should now be over, takes away the uncertainty.

Aye, but do they hand us and the Green brigade the titles?

Or as japanarab was saying in another thread, theres talk of play offs between the top 4 Clubs FFS.

kiwiarab · 13/3/2020 8:03 am

People's health is most important thing.

Having said that, play offs to decide champions or relegation is crazy. Imagine Man City beat Liverpool in a play off to become champions? Who, apart from the most die hard City fan, could argue that is fair?

No easy options, I would consider

- suspending the league and resuming when crisis is over, could be very difficult with contracts expiring, if the pandemic continues as predicted
- cancel remaining games and award champions and relegations based on existing league positions. Very harsh on clubs like Hearts and Partick, but fairer than a play off

PatReilly · 13/3/2020 8:17 am

No matter what decisions are made, there will be downsides in football terms for everyone.

As The Shed points out, the uncertainty of the situation makes any decision made now regarding suspension almost unworkable. And kiwiarab rightly brings up the contractual position of players who are only signed up until May 2020. It's not just about clubs having huge financial difficulties, individuals at all clubs are also going to be adversely affected.

I'm not bright enough to choose one of Tek's two options. But whatever happens, I think some clubs in Scotland will go out of business, probably on a greater scale than down south where television income has been greater throughout their leagues.

bowers · 13/3/2020 8:57 am

TheShed wrote:
bowers wrote:
Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

Mate most of the clubs in league 2/3 mostly survive week to week, they need that money desperately or they’ll be relying on directors bailing them out and they don’t all have people who can afford or be willing to do that. That’s not complete pish, it’s absolutely the way these clubs have to work.

As for how long a suspension lasts, as long as it needs to for public health to be fixed. The experts, not the politicians, are saying 80% will get it, they’re also saying it won’t peak until June. Some things are more important than football.

Alot of teams have 4 home games left till the season ends. Some will then have play offs.
Forfar V East Fife a couple of weeks back had an attendance of 644. Now how many of them paid in on the day? How much of that went to costs on the day? How much did the club actually earn.

SuperMario · 13/3/2020 9:14 am

I’ve got a horrible horrible feeling about all this

Tek · 13/3/2020 9:51 am

bowers wrote:
Tek wrote:
It just seems if UEFA have the interests of the clubs, supporters and Fair Play in mind (and that as fellow Dundee United supporters should always be something we pride ourselves upon), they will take the lead in advising that....

1) The suspension of ALL European Leagues, cups and tournaments for 1 month
2) Push the Euro's to Summer of 2021 and use the free Summer to complete this season's leagues/cups/Champions League/Europa across Europe.

Anything else isn't football as we know it. And downgrades this great sport.

P.s. it has to be UEFA who take the lead here btw.
And if its not over in 1 month? do we extend by another month? When does it end? Do we extend again?
We could potentially not play another game from Saturday till end of May/June. Do we then start the 2020/21 season in September and cram in extra midweek fixtures?

Looking elsewhere the virus has went from peak to contained in 4-6 weeks.

So, if it is not on the slide in 4 weeks there is the option then to either postpone a further 2 weeks or then fulfill the fixtures behind closed doors.

As long as the Euro's are pushed back to 2021 there is scope to do all this. Next season would need pushed back a month also obviously.

Tek · 13/3/2020 9:52 am

bowers wrote:
Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

These clubs need the gate receipts to pay players and keep the lights on.

It's certainly not pish.

bowers · 13/3/2020 9:55 am

Tek wrote:
bowers wrote:
Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

These clubs need the gate receipts to pay players and keep the lights on.

It's certainly not pish.

see post 18.

how many of that are paying customers and what are they left with after costs?

Tek · 13/3/2020 10:19 am

bowers wrote:
Tek wrote:
bowers wrote:
Closed doors and stream for me.

There is no guarantee how long a suspension would last could end up being a 5/6 week before things are given the green light to go ahead again. What if they then minimize attendances to large gatherings? how do they pick that?

in reality how many smaller clubs are really going to go to the wall over no gate receipts for 4/5 games they have left at home this season? Smaller clubs are no bringing it that much money through the gates in cash so thats just absolute pish imo.

These clubs need the gate receipts to pay players and keep the lights on.

It's certainly not pish.

see post 18.

how many of that are paying customers and what are they left with after costs?

Again, enough to pay the players and keep the lights on in most cases.

A lot of these clubs like Albion Rovers, Cowdenbeath etc etc are living hand to mouth.

All i'm suggesting really is if possible bringing the off-season forward and then playing through when the start of that period would have been.

I think it's worth pursuing at least before other options are taken i.e. closed door games etc.

There is also the point that can we really expect players to play in the next 4 weeks? Hearing various reports of players getting corona or symptoms etc.

PatReilly · 13/3/2020 10:24 am

Both of you (Tek and bowers) have a point.

A lot of smaller clubs need the matches on to make money, as tek suggests, while bowers is also correct that few pay in as these teams normally have a high percentage of season ticket attendees.

Where they may lose their biggest percentage is in the loss of hospitality income, as many small clubs can cater for relatively big numbers paying, say £80 per person, 80 guests, £6,400.

bowers · 13/3/2020 10:31 am

Tek wrote:
bowers wrote:
Tek wrote:

These clubs need the gate receipts to pay players and keep the lights on.

It's certainly not pish.

see post 18.

how many of that are paying customers and what are they left with after costs?

Again, enough to pay the players and keep the lights on in most cases.

A lot of these clubs like Albion Rovers, Cowdenbeath etc etc are living hand to mouth.

All i'm suggesting really is if possible bringing the off-season forward and then playing through when the start of that period would have been.

I think it's worth pursuing at least before other options are taken i.e. closed door games etc.

There is also the point that can we really expect players to play in the next 4 weeks? Hearing various reports of players getting corona or symptoms etc.

This may take weeks to take a proper hold in Scotland so how long do we postpone games? Keep going till the authorities say X amount of people cant attend which from monday it appears gatherings of 500 people and more cant go ahead. so by the time we come to play Alloa we will have 7 games to play including that. There is countless different ways this can go.