Barber: We must never forget this dreadful chapter
FOOTBALL must not forget the terrible cost of the coronavirus pandemic in the excitement to get the season back up and running, according to Brighton chief executive Paul Barber.
“I did wake up this morning feeling a lot better about life than I have for the last few weeks,” he said.
But on what felt almost like a new dawn for football, he stressed that the game finally has to learn the importance of family.
Too often in the past, the smallest shoots of economic growth at the top have hidden the weeds that have choked the life out of the very roots of the game.
There was relief among the 20 clubs – understandably – at finally getting Project Restart mapped out in the calendar on Thursday.
The light is there at the end of a tunnel made shorter by a renegotiation of the rebate owed to broadcasters in return for greater access to the final 92 games of the season.
But as football resumes in front of empty stands, Barber wants everybody to look around and realise that everything is still far from right – even as those balls are being kicked in anger once more.
Barber said: “Why will football do the right thing this time?
“For me, and I cannot answer for other clubs, this has been a very significant and stark reminder of how fragile we are, not just football, but generally.
“I was around when ITV Digital happened and that was painful for a lot of clubs. It was potentially catastrophic for many.
“We have had recessions before.We have had all kinds of issues in the game.
“But nothing I can recall that has touched every single one of us to this degree.And on a human level as well.
“We have had issues at our club with three of our players testing positive. One of our staff has been in intensive care.
“We have had other staff who have lost members of their family to the virus in the last few weeks.
“Every club, if you go through the other 90 currently in the league, there will be similar stories of a similar scale that means that this won’t be very easily forgotten by anybody.
“I can’t provide the answers as to what that might do for the game but it will give us an opportunity to pause and reflect and look at ways to make the football ecosystem a little bit more secure in the future.
“And we are going to have a reminder for many weeks and months to come when we play football in empty stadia, of just how difficult these last few months have been.”
Nothing before has touched us to this degree