Looking at the bigger picture... I’m in no rush to see football return

BLUEBIRDS COLUMNIST SCOTT JOHNSON

AS much as I miss football, I’m in no rush to see it return.

In an alternative universe, I would likely have been writing here about Cardiff’s final away game of the season, which would have taken place on Saturday against Middlesbrough.

I might have been writing about Cardiff’s march to the play-offs, or how a season of transition saw Cardiff fall short of the top six.

Maybe I would have been reflecting on a late season collapse, looking beyond next weekend’s final game towards the summer transfer window and a chance to address the inadequacies that had been recently highlighted.

Instead, Cardiff’s last eight games were postponed and we have no idea when, or even if, they will ever take place.

Everything is in limbo, and not just football. Instead, we’re all stuck at home and I’m writing about the void where football used to live.

Football coverage now consists of a running commentary on how and when football will return.

Writers have to write something.

I appreciate it’s a very complicated and delicate situation, but my personal stance is this; I miss you football, but don’t hurry back.

Firstly, I understand why some people find it distasteful to talk about the logistics of sport returning at a time when thousands of people are dying every week.

In an ideal world, it would be shelved indefinitely, but we all care about sport and if it is to survive, suitable resolutions need to be found and measures need to be put in place.

The needs of the people and the needs of the economy have never been so far apart.

Therefore, the same applies to the needs of footballers and football.

The industry needs the show back on the road, but the players are just like you and me.

Their health and safety absolute priority.

Yet the pressure to return remains relentless. There is too much at stake for football as a business. As a multi-billion pound industry.

Football’s financial model was already broken, with everyone banking on the upward trajectory of about is the television money.

Now its smashed to smithereens. The longer football is out of action, the more casualties there will be.

In recent weeks, I’ve read about all sorts of possible solutions. There problem is that they’re all differing shades of awful.

There is a determination to play out the remainder of this season, but what if that is at the expense of next season? For some, it would be worth it, for others it would be ruinous.

There is the option to end the season as it is, but that is no less problematic.

That would rightly reward the likes of Liverpool, West Brom and Leeds, but punish the likes of Aston Villa, in the Premier League bottom three, but with a game in hand.

SCOTT JOHNSON

Unless you do away with relegation, of course, but how is that fair? What about the play-offs?

Practically and ethically, option is a nightmare.

The alternative is to just void the whole season, as if it never happened.

That is the favourite option for the likes of clubs like Aston Villa and West Ham, but therein lies one of the key problems; everyone has a vested interest and an opinion that suits their own agenda.

What suits a Champions Leaguechasing Premier League side does also not necessarily work for a team scrapping away at the foot of League Two, but both feed into each other.

You get the impression that Britain is waiting to see what other nations do first and some of them are gearing up to resume next month behind closed doors. this

If football is to resume in any form this year, it will likely be without fans and that may be the biggest issue of them all for me.

I have no interest in watching football with no fans present.

Pre-season games are bad enough, but this will be a whole other level.

I think some people have a rosetinted view of what that will be like, that may quickly change once they experience it over a sustained period.

I doubt footballers enjoy playing in that environment and I think those watching on would quickly tire at the poor imitation taking place.

The reality would likely be understrength sides going through the motions and once a few players inevitably test positive for coronavirus, another shutdown.

This taps in to the biggest philosophical football question of them all; what is football without fans?

Is there any point? It looks like we will soon find out.

I don’t envy the decision makers because they face an impossible task of juggling the pressures of TV companies, clubs and fans with the welfare of participants.

Cardiff still have everything to play for, just two points outside the top six and a lot riding on a return to the top flight.

What if they do make the play-offs though? Will the final be played behind closed doors at Wembley? How creepy would that be, and good luck stopping fans congregating at that.

We’re all going to have to get used to games in empty stadiums, but I don’t share the obsession with ending the current season.

Would it even bear any resemblance to what has gone before anyway, after such a long break?

My only hope is that the welfare of players remains the absolute priority because as long as the lockdown remains in place, they should not be expected to return to work.

Footballers are rarely treated like actual human beings, but now would be a good time to start.

For now, I’m more than willing to wait it out and currently get just as much pleasure from seeing Will Vaulks help out in the community as I did from seeing him open the scoring at Barnsley.

Players are just like you and me. Their health and safety is the absolute priority