The season MUST be played to a finish.. even if we go on until June

Mr Marmite.. Love him, hate him, you just can’t ignore him

‘Good luck telling fans of Liverpool under 30 they won’t be allowed to see their team lift the Premier League trophy’

STOPPING the season until at least April 3 was a no-brainer, and not before time.

I can’t believe the decision took so long – but it’s too early to talk about cancelling the season altogether.

I agree with suspending the Premier League, EFL, FA Cup and European competitions for a month. If necessary, I would now extend the domestic season into June and postpone the 2020 European Championship until next year.

That might be an unprecedented solution, but let’s remember that these are unprecedented times.

When Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi test positive, when three Leicester players are sent home to self-isolate, and when Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy is quarantined, enough is enough.

I’m not a medical expert and I don’t pretend to know how long this pandemic will blight our daily lives.

And the season should only resume when the medical experts tell us it’s safe to do so.

But it MUST be completed – however long it takes – so here’s what I would do to save the season, or at least give ourselves a chance of completing it.

After suspending it for the next two rounds of Premier League games, and the two-week international break, the picture may be much clearer by early April.

Let’s prolong the domestic season into June, postpone the Euros until 2021 and, if necessary, play the FA Cup final at the start of next season.

And if clubs don’t like the idea of a shortened summer break, they can cancel their pre-season tours to farflung parts of the globe – nothing sends the body clock into meltdown faster than long-haul travel.

But to those people who say we should play games behind closed doors to complete the fixtures, I would say this: Good luck telling Liverpool supporters under the age of 30 they won’t be allowed to see their team lift the Premier League trophy because

Anfield has been declared out of bounds.

A whole generation of fans on Merseyside have waited three decades to see their team win the title again. You simply cannot take that moment away from them when they are so close.

Football is nothing without supporters. It would be like a phonein where nobody is put through to the studio – a total charade.

I watched Manchester United’s Europa League win against LASK in an empty stadium in Austria on Thursday night, and the absence of fans gave it an eerie atmosphere.

It was like commentating on a match played on a games console – it didn’t feel right.

And to those people who say we should cancel the league and everyone starts again in August in the same division: Try telling Leeds United fans, who have been through so many near misses on promotion back to the top flight, that they must go back to square one again in the Championship.

Try telling Coventry fans, who are dreaming of a return to the upper slopes despite being made homeless again, they will not be given the chance to go up.

Try telling fans of Crewe, top of League Two, that all the effort may have been for nothing.

And try telling National League leaders Barrow, turfed out of the Football League by a re-election vote in 1972, that their long wait to get back into the mainstream must continue.

Those clubs may not get another chance to fulfil their dreams.

So let’s not be too hasty in cancelling the season altogether. Let’s not abandon the ship if we can still get it back into the harbour.

But I cannot stress it enough: All those dreams should be allowed to come true only when the virus is under control.

I see that UEFA are holding a meeting on Tuesday, with postponement of Euro 2020 high on the agenda.

But why wait until Tuesday? They are just as likely to reach the same conclusion on a conference call today.

Like I said, this is an unprecedented situation and it was only a matter of time before the Premier League fell into line with the rest of Europe.

But this crisis is more important than football.

It is a matter of life and death. It could not be more serious.