Shutdown is bigger threat to local sport
WHEN Pep Guardiola recently articulated the thoughts of football supporters up and down the land, namely that football without the fans is nothing, he was, unfortunately, only half right.
Football in empty stadiums would certainly feel different and sound different.
It would be soulless, but it would still be on TV.
And while football was about the fans, it is also about business now. Big business.
Part of the reason the Premier League will be desperate to finish this season is that they are committed to a broadcasting deal that demands a certain number of games to be shown live.
Fail to fulfil that and penalty clauses will surely follow, expenses that will be passed on to clubs.
The coronavirus crisis that has left Europe on lockdown is a humanitarian and social issue, first and foremost, but its impact will leave no part of our lives untouched.
And for many of us, football is a big part of our lives.
The differing attitudes between the Premier League and those further down football’s increasingly stretched food chain show how separated clubs have become.
While the Premier League would take games behind closed doors to fulfil broadcast contracts worth billions of pounds, for clubs in the EFL and in non-league no football and football behind closed doors will have the same end result.
They are financially dependent on gate receipts and the effects of going weeks or months without could be cataclysmic for some.
If anything good can come for the game out of this crisis, then perhaps it will be a closer, more functioning relationship between the clubs at the very top and those further down the leagues, who are cherished institutions fighting a near continual battle to avoid financial meltdown. For some, this shutdown could accelerate that process.
The situation in Greater Manchester is probably more stark than the rest of the country. While United celebrate commercial deals across the world and City luxuriate in the backing of a state, other clubs have been to the brink and back, while Bury went to the brink and didn’t come back. The gap between football’s haves and have-nots has never been wider. Bolton almost went with Bury and Oldham have had their issues this season. Some clubs in non-league may find it impossible to survive the current crisis if it continues for months rather than weeks. The caveat to this is that there isn’t an easy solution, other than
Other clubs have been to the brink and back, while Bury went to the brink and didn’t come back Tyrone Marshall