Swift action is a tribute to boxing
That is why we are reading such ridiculous stories as those with 20 teams going over to China to finish the campaign.
It sounded like a good idea last week but playing one match every day for a month in a festival of football, set against a backdrop of swabs, syringes and the latest death toll looks macabre.
And who wants to lift a trophy before an empty
Anyone in the automatic promotion places gets moved up one league and the fixtures will have to be adjusted until the equilibrium is restored.
The broadcasters can hand over the money due for the remainder of the season – so that football clubs survive until the summer – and knock the amount off their next bill.
UEFA are already threatening the Belgians with expulsion after they halted proceedings. Let’s see how that pans out when officials from the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga decide to withdraw.
It won’t be a good look for European football if UEFA pays scant attention to the unfolding medical disaster.
Domestically, if the broadcasters won’t help, the Premier League will have to undergo some financial hardship like the rest of the country and take out a loan.
They can subsidise the shortfall. I bet that puts a brake on transfers and salary inflation next season.
As for now, let’s just call it quits. There are more important things to worry about than whether this season is finished. Sorry, but there really are.
For auctioning his World Cup winning jersey for the NHS.
Ditto, for giving a Middlesex Hospital a £19,000 donation before other Prem players acted.
For auctioning Thierry Henry’s milestone shirt after the striker scored his 100th goal for Arsenal.
WHO’S NOT
For running off with Henry’s shirt in the first place.
For voting himself the Premier League’s greatest goalscorer. He is, but still...
For getting himself busted on social media for watching porn on his laptop.
BRAVO to the British Boxing Board of Control who took swift action over Billy Joe Saunders’ backfiring social media release about how to beat up women during the coronavirus lockdown.
Dragging him up on a misconduct charge to face the music and revoking his licence was a decisive and proportional response to a brainless and needless post.
It’s just a shame the range of sanctions doesn’t stretch to a session on the frontline, accompanying the police who deal daily with the domestic abuse Saunders (above) made light of.