‘Quarantine football’ is no way to complete a season

SUGGESTIONS that sport, including football, could start up again in some sort of ‘bio-secure’ bubble are becoming stronger by the day.

Over in the United States, there are reports that Major League Baseball is hoping to begin its season in May or early June, with all 30 teams playing games in the Phoenix area of Arizona.

Having been tested for coronavirus, the players and officials would be isolated in local hotels and only travel to and from the stadium, which, of course, would be empty.

There is even a suggestion that the games could be televised by remotely operated cameras.

And if it is being considered in American sports circles, you can bet it is being considered here.

We know it is.

While it is clear there is a financial motive behind the desire to get sport up and running, there is also this idea that televised live action would somehow lift the morale of populations under mental and physical siege from Covid-19.

Would it really lift your morale to see sport played in some sort of futuristic, disinfected, socially distant, masked, silent world? In football’s case, would referees have to stay two metres away from players?

Most of us would happily watch a kickaround in the back garden right now, but the spectacle of quarantine football would be uncomfortable, to say the least.

Yet the prospect is being talked of as an inevitability.

Rick Parry (right), the EFL chairman, said as much in a letter to member clubs that suggests their season could be concluded over 56 days.

Presumably, the Premier League would have a similar timescale.

For non-League clubs from steps three to seven, they have no option.

The FA has ratified a decision to cancel their seasons. But the Premier

League and the EFL will get this season finished, come what may.

They say it is for the integrity, but it is for the money, of course.

There will be no integrity in mid-table teams going through the motions in an empty arena in a game staged by people in face masks.

And, largely, that is what it will be about. Going through the motions to make sure football does not take a brutal hit from the broadcasters.

Yes, those teams with something to play for – promotion, relegation, titles – might well throw themselves into proceedings with enthusiasm and vigour.

But will any players really want to be out there? Even those Liverpool players with the Premier League title at their fingertips.

Never mind how much money they earn, think about the players when it comes to these restart plans. They would certainly be forgiven if they were worried about returning too early to training or playing.

For one thing, they would be worried about leaving their families, and the threat to their own health.

It would not be as dramatic as it would be in baseball, where players could face four-and-a-half months in one of these isolation hotels while getting through the season.

But any time away from home right now would be hard to deal with.

Those of us who rail against the idea of playing behind closed doors seem to have already lost that argument.

It is inevitable, not least because of all the restrictions to be lifted, you would guess that the one on mass gatherings would be the last to go.

But football should only return to the shop floor when we all do.

As non-essential workers, why should they be coerced back to work ahead of other non-essential workers?

If everyone is back to work, footballers can go back to work.