Fixture up in the air

THE A-League could play all its games in one city with players confined to hotels, under one of several plans being put forward to allow the season to be completed.

As competition bosses and club officials continued talks over the ramifications for soccer of an unfolding global crisis, the option of gathering all clubs together in a central location has been discussed informally amid an unprecedented threat to being able to finish the current season.

Clubs are planning to stage games behind closed doors once the current round is over, starting with Sydney FC hosting Wellington on Wednesday night after the Government’s ban on gatherings of more than 500 people has been implemented.

But there is also acute awareness that if players and coaches contract COVID-19, then the competition will have to be suspended, though there is a determination to at least try to play out the final rounds of the season and its finals.

The status of Wellington’s players remains a major complication, after the New Zealand Government announced that all incoming passengers of any nationality have to selfisolate for 14 days.

Phoenix admitted that makes staging any more home games impossible, and FFA staff have been working through the logistics of the whole club decamping to Sydney for the rest of the season.

That would be more palatable if all clubs moved to a centralised venue, though that remains a speculative option currently in a situation changing by the hour.

It would, though, give clubs more control over players, with officials admitting that outside of training grounds and matchday venues they are reliant on players remembering to follow strict protocols around interacting with as few people as possible.