One step at a time only way forward
AS Irish society inches out of lockdown one-step-at-a-time, if anything the return of elite soccer and GAA seems further away than ever.
For quite different reasons, the SSE Airtricity League and Intercounty GAA seasons are still in grave danger of being scrapped altogether.
Some within the GAA - Louth chairman, Peter Fitzpatrick included - would like to see the inter-county campaign shelved in favour of a return to club action, but there’s no guarantee that the so-called grass roots will be able to resume anytime soon either.
Golfers are back on the Fairways, the racing fraternity is riding again, albeit behind closed doors, and athletes are back on track too.
Crucially, social-distancing can be maintained in these non-contact sports, so tennis, snooker, and darts players and even rowers will soon be competing again too.
Top-class soccer can’t guarantee social-distancing, but they do have big wads of cash at hand to test players twice or three times a week, so even if a COVID-19 positive does pop up, it won’t necessarily stop the whole gravy train on its tracks.
If the Bundesliga isn’t floating your boat you’ll soon be able to enjoy live Premier League football again - each and every one of the 92 remaining games to be exact!
But will we see Louth and Longford lock horns in the first round of the Leinster Championship?
Will Dublin make it a Super-six? Will Tipp be top again?
Can Dundalk defend their SSE Airtricity League crown, even a slimmeddown, ‘lite’ version?
Unfortunately, we appear to be no closer to answering those questions than we were nine weeks ago, and it may even be 2021 before we get the answers.
For the FAI the problem is primarily a financial one as, while clubs may be prepared to play games behind closed doors, most cannot afford to do so without significant FAI or government aid.
There is no real link between the amateur and professional game as there is in the GAA, so local soccer leagues should be able to return as soon as the government gives them the green light.
However, there will always be a risk that if a player from one team picks up the virus, then the whole league may have to hit pause again for at least 14 days.
Unlike their soccer counterparts elite GAA players also play for clubs, and the GAA have commendably put those clubs first in the pecking order for a return to action.
In doing so they have left a small window open in October and November to run off some kind of All-Ireland Championship.
But it’s all speculation at this stage and while they are getting grief for not coming up with some kind of ‘roadmap’, maybe they’re right to resist the urge to take a shot in the dark in terms of pin-pointing a return date.
There doesn’t seem to be an appetite at Croke Park level to play inter-county games behind closed doors, even if managers and players are willing to do so as a last resort.
There’s a logic to that position too. Apart from modest TV money, behindclosed-doors games won’t generate revenue and so it may end up costing the GAA money to stage inter-county games.
We won’t know for some time if supporters might be allowed back into games by October or November, so is there any point in the GAA top brass saying ‘we’ll resume on such a date ‘or ‘we’re scrapping it altogether?’
Either way they would be backing themselves into a corner.
By giving clubs the first crack at the whip, and assuming they can return to action as planned, then players from Junior ‘C’ to senior inter-county will get back on the pitch before the year is out.
Co. Louth enjoyed four straight days of zero COVID-19 cases last week, so if in the coming weeks and months we managed to go 14, 21 or 28 days without a new case of the virus, then the government’s plan to return to competitive action in phase 4 could well be possible for football and hurling clubs.
It all depends on how the country transitions through the government’s roadmap, as a fresh surge or a cluster in a particular part of the country could put the whole thing back weeks or even months.
For now, like society as whole, the GAA and FAI will have to take it onestep-at-a-time.