It’s all about self-interest at elite level of our game
This all goes against honesty, trust, respect.
How unseemly to have the infighting between clubs about trying to finish 2019/20.
I can understand Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber saying he is opposed to playing on neutral grounds.
The tradition of our sport is having to deal with travelling to places where you don’t necessarily like playing.
Players have been told to stop hugging and kissing after goals, no sliding on your knees or spitting – although good luck to anyone who tries to spit with a mask on.
There’ll probably be no tackling allowed – oh, I forgot, that rule seemed to come in years ago!
But it all seems racked with selfinterest. No wonder people are getting fed up.
Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts, of South Yorkshire Police, said: “Comments such as, ‘We might get relegated,’ ‘We don’t want to play at neutral venues,’ ‘When we played them away, there were fans in the stadium. We play at home without fans – that’s a disadvantage,’ ‘We want to get the trophy.’ I get that, in a football context, these are all a big deal.
“Bit in a broader context where the country’s seen 30,000 and rising deaths then, really, I think some of the people making these comments need to get a grip.”
But we are seeing who has got the power.
And while there is a sniff of major cash from television and the big money glamour that can attract oilrich families from Saudi Arabia to our clubs, we are only heading in one direction.
I think this crisis could lead to a world league, so that we can keep finding bigger and bigger cheques for players and chief executives. The big will try to keep getting bigger and they will keep feathering their own nests.
They’ll be playing once every two weeks, with a nice few days in Barcelona, Madrid or Paris to acclimatise in between.
It’s a farce and I only wish it wasn’t too late to turn the tide.