‘Irrational’ fans must not return

I HAD to laugh at the headlines on Sunday, which read along the lines of: ‘Government under pressure to end fan ban’.

Because it’s nonsense being spun by football’s governing bodies, as they try to recoup money they have frittered away over the decades.

Football fans as a group are irrational, emotional and impulsive, with lashings of ale on top on matchdays, and that’s not a criticism because I’m a fan, too.

But if football thinks the middle of a second wave of this awful virus is a good time to be nudging Government towards getting fans back into stadiums again then, just like in the first wave, they’ve lost the plot.

Football supporters should be the last section of society allowed into mass gatherings because they’ll walk over hot coals, and accept viruses, to see their teams play.

And if you don’t believe me, ask the 54,000-odd who went to Anfield, including 3,000 Atletico Madrid superspreaders, in March, who undoubtedly added to both cities’ Covid-19 woes.

MIKEL ARTETA will already have an eye on the next transfer window and, if I were him, I’d be saying to Arsenal’s board, ‘Do you like the job I’m doing?’, and if the answer is yes, he should be adding, ‘Right, in that case, give me the money to push on’.

And if he doesn’t get it and Pep Guardiola is eyeing an exit from Manchester City next summer, he should be putting himself front and centre to take over at the Etihad, because he will already be in the mix.