NO FANS FEELS WRONG BUT, RIGHT NOW, WE WILL TAKE ANYTHING
FOR years, Thursdays have been my oasis of calm and creativity… I bounce out of bed, knowing I can devote one day to my first love. A coffee poured, an idea born and the tap-tap of a keyboard for company.
What I can say, categorically, is I have no true authority or any real confidence when it comes to predicting what sport will look like between now and next month, or next summer, or the summer after that.
Why? Well, I’m not a virologist, a doctor or a scientist, nor do I head up any of the laboratories devoting every waking hour to finding a vaccine for this dreaded thing. A second wave one way, a miracle cure the other, and everything changes overnight.
With all due respect, I’m not looking to football pundits or sports columnists for their thoughts on a global pandemic, any more than I crave chief medical officer Chris Whitty’s insight on the future of Paul Pogba at Manchester United.
The return of live sport will be determined by the course of this pandemic and the science that guides us, so I can only truly speak from the heart and mine has a football-shaped hole in it.
While there is comfort in a competitive golf club being swung and I’m genuinely buoyed by the imminent return of world-class snooker, it is football that leaves the biggest void.
No day-to-day WhatsApp wind-ups, no friendly smack talk, no slow crawl towards matchday, no nerves as kickoff looms closer, no feeling sick to the pit of your stomach one minute then higher than the clouds the next.
I know the Bundesliga is back but for the vast majority who do not support a German side, it was like going on a date with someone you really fancy and the night ending with nothing more than a firm handshake. Yes, we will absolutely do it all again, but most of us went to bed feeling just as frustrated. No. I mean our football. Our towns. Our cities. Our colours. Our communities.
And what I do know is it is very much two different stories. When people talk about the return of ‘football’, what many of them really mean is the return of elite-level
Luis is right but without fans it is tantamount to sleeping with your cousin
football – and even then without fans.
One of the few certainties is clubs outside the top tiers cannot pay for the regular testing needed to play football behind closed doors, let alone wages and running costs. The hundreds of thousands per club needed just to finish this season would push many to the brink and others straight over the edge, hence the current situation in League Two.
Unless the money is magicked from elsewhere, most lower-league clubs will not be able to return for the beginning of next season, never mind the conclusion of this one, without fans back in the stands.
This is truly heartbreaking for supporters of any team who don’t breath the rarified air.
And on that subject, what will never feel right, in any league, are the echoes of empty stadiums. Spain manager Luis Enrique said football behind closed doors is ‘sadder than dancing with your sister’. He is absolutely right and, if anything, he did not quite go far enough. It is tantamount to sleeping with your cousin.
Nothing about it feels right but, as the weeks slip by without any action, we might have to metaphorically take it where we can get it, at least when it comes to those teams who rely more on TV revenue than bums on seats.
So, while there are clearly more important things and my head acknowledges the imperfect complexity and financial perils of moving back towards any kind of footballing normality, it doesn’t stop my heart yearning for it on a daily basis. This, at least, for millions of us, we know to be true.