Premier clubs favour closed doors finish to the season
LIVERPOOL coach Jurgen Klopp has revealed how he was overcome with emotion after seeing a video of NHS staff singing the club’s anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
On Thursday, Klopp and players and staff from Liverpool’s men’s and women’s teams released their own video, in which they thanked healthcare staff around the world for their efforts in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
And yesterday the German told of his emotional reaction to first seeing NHS staff using Liverpool’s anthem as a message of support.
“My English is not good enough to say... it’s extraordinary, it’s great.
“I think yesterday I was sent a video of people in the hospital just outside the intensive care area, and when they started singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, I started crying immediately. It’s unbelievable.
“But it shows everything, these people not only work, but they have such a good spirit. They are used to helping other people. We need to get used to it because usually we have our own problems and stuff. But it’s their job, they do it day in and day out.
“They bring themselves, if you want, in danger because they help ill, sick and seriously handicapped people, so I couldn’t admire them more and appreciate it more, I really couldn’t.”
COMPLETING the 2019-20 season behind closed doors is still the “majority view” within both the Premier League and the EFL.
It is also seen as the most viable current solution to the effect the COVID-19 crisis has had on football, and one the involved parties are most trying to work towards.
The Premier League, EFL and Professional Footballers’ Association have been in discussions over Thursday and Friday, with the primary emphasis of the talks coronavirus’ economic impact on the game.
A natural extension of that has been the fate of the season, especially since any decision could have huge financial consequences for clubs and the league.
There remains the possibility the bodies would have to pay hundreds of millions back to broadcasters, while “delayed income” is obviously seen as preferential to cancelled income.
This is why by far the most popular option is finishing the 2019-20 season, regardless of when that may be. It is similarly seen as fairer, and less subject to legal challenges, to just truncate the prospective 2020-21 campaign.
Alongside that, reports have emerged that some clubs are again pushing to have the season expunged.
A natural consequence of that would be everything going back to how it was at the start of 2019-20, from European places to promotion. This also leaves open the possibility of more legal challenges.
However, many in football have been told the government would back games “behind closed doors” within health and safety guidelines, as they feel it would restore a necessary element of normality to people’s lives in difficult times.
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Klopp also shared details of his side’s reaction as the outbreak worsened on the week of Liverpool’s Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid at Anfield.
“We played the Bournemouth game on Saturday, we won it, then Sunday City lost, so the information for us was ‘two wins to go’.
“But then on Monday morning, I woke up and heard about the situation in Madrid, that they wouldclosetheschoolsanduniversities from Wednesday, so it was really strange to prepare for that game,” he said.
“I usually don’t struggle with things around me, I can build barriers right and left when I prepare for a game, but in that moment it was really difficult.
“Wednesday we had the game against Atletico Madrid, I loved the game, I loved what I saw from the boys, it was a really, really good performance other thantheresult—wedidn’tscore enough, we conceded too many, that’s all clear, but between these two main pieces of information it was a brilliant game.
“Thursday we were off and then Friday when we arrived it was already clear this is not a session. Yes, we trained, but it was more of a meeting. We had a lot of things to talk about, a lot of things to think about, things I never thought before in my life about.
“Nobody knew exactly — and nobody knows exactly — how it will go on, so the only thing we could do was to organise it as well as possible fortheboysandmakesure everything is sorted as much as we can sort it in our little space, in the little area where we are responsible, really. That’s what we did in a very short time, then we sent the boys home, went home ourselves and here we are still.”
Klopp (left) also admitted it has been difficult not seeing his players and staff in recent weeks.
“I have to say, not only the backroom staff, I miss everybody. I just miss everybody. Usually you are somewhere and that’s not a moment where you miss the backroom staff or your colleagues,” he said. “But at the moment, really desperately. We miss each other.
“We have a lot of contact with Whatsapp groups and phone calls, Facetime, whatever.
“So we see each other a lot, but notlikewewanttoorlikeweare used to.”