Match farce does Cats and the EFL no favours
VIRUS SCARE SHOULD HAVE LED TO CALL-OFF
NEITHER side comes out of this well.
Not the EFL and not Sunderland either.
When a Sunderland player developed Covid symptoms on Sunday and then returned a positive test, leading to seven more first team squad members having to self-isolate, there was only one sensible course of action - postpone the game against AFC Wimbledon.
Covid is a virus which can kill and the safety of players, staff, and their families must come first.
In a sane world where League One was administered by a responsible governing body, the decision would have been taken out of Sunderland’s hands.
Unfortunately, the EFL is not such a body.
As is their way, they passed the buck.
That was the point where Sunderland should have taken responsibility.
They should have taken the moral high ground and refused to take the risk - but they did not.
So the game went ahead, with Sunderland having to name two players on the bench - Jordan Willis and Lynden Gooch - who were nowhere near fit after lengthy spells out through injury, along with four academy players who had played for the under-23s the previous afternoon.
The club did not name the players who were missing due to the Covid outbreak but most of them could be deduced without putting Hercule Poirot on the case.
There was no sign of Chris Maguire, Aiden McGeady, Charlie Wyke, Max Power, Tom Flanagan, Danny Graham and Remi Matthews, all of whom would normally be in the matchday squad.
In the aftermath of the 1-1 draw, head coach Lee Johnson was furious and said it was dangerous for the game to go ahead in such circumstances.
Dangerous because of the risk of Covid circulating within his squad, dangerous because it could be passed to opposition players and dangerous because he had to use half-fit players and youngsters who should have been resting to pad out his squad.
The problem is Sunderland knew those all risks but opted to play anyway.
They could cobble together a squad, however unfit and ill-prepared.
Other clubs - Bristol Rovers asked for postponements after a Covid outbreak yesterday while AFC Wimbledon did so last month and Swindon and Crewe in October - have simply said they cannot fulfil their fixtures.
Where clubs have postponed
fixtures due to Covid outbreaks, the EFL has said it will investigate and there is a danger that, if the investigation finds matches could have gone ahead, games could be forfeited.
The Wearsiders were fearful an EFL investigation might conclude they could have played the game, and that therefore the points would be awarded to Wimbledon.
As Johnson admitted after the match, Sunderland’s decision to play the game was ‘based on fear of sanction rather than the safety of the players’.
It does not reflect well on Sunderland and it does not reflect well on the EFL.
It beggars belief nine months into the Covid pandemic and three months into the new season, the EFL does not have clear rules which take away the uncertainty for clubs finding themselves in this situation.
No investigation into a club asking for a game to be postponed due to Covid has yet been concluded.
That means everyone is operating in the dark.
That said, player safety must be paramount.
Sunderland should have erred
on the side of caution, postponed the game and left the EFL to make the case further down the line as to why the club should have taken a more cavalier approach to the health of its players and staff.
After all the drama surrounding the fixture, the game itself was a let-down.
Sunderland dominated the game, had more than 70 per cent of the possession, but found themselves trailing to a Joe Pigott penalty just before half-time after a needless foul by Callum McFadzean on Jack Rudoni.
Bailey Wright’s volleyed equaliser just after the hour gave Sunderland a deserved point, although Wimbledon looked the more likely winners with the pacey Ryan Longman coming closest when he hit the crossbar with Lee Burge beaten.
Sunderland slip one place to ninth in the table.
They remain four points outside the automatic promotion places while cutting the gap between themselves and leaders Hull City to six points.
It was another two points dropped at home - but this time there were extenuating circumstances.