Coronavirus and the Scottish Championship

[Guest DAVIDB69]

Its the only way to end it let's be honest its going to be difficult to start next season on time . simple the only way forward nil and void start again  
Sent from my Samsung gold s10
 
 
 

It will be ended with results standing I suspect

[Rudolph Hucker]

1 hour ago, Skyline Drifter said:

It really isn't. UEFA has no power to change the definition of a season, tamper with windows, or the two club rule for that matter. Nor have they any jurisidiction on player contracts These are all FIFA matters. UEFA can suggest, ask, request, etc but it can't make the decisions.

 

1 hour ago, virginton said:

Yet FIFA will do what UEFA wants them to do because it has got no skin in the game. What UEFA, the domestic leagues and the clubs agree to is what matters here.

[Highlandmagyar 2nd Tier]

9 hours ago, Flash said:

Wimbledon statement says “With the likelihood that the Government’s measures will continue for many months...” they can’t prepare properly and they have ruled out a postponement because “the people supplies and services legally required to stage the Championships would not be available at any point this summer”.

Not definitive, but quite a strong indication that organised sport won’t be happening before the end of August.

https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2020-04-01/cancellation_of_the_championships_2020.html

 

And remember this tournament is a bastion of the establishment. They will have more than likely been tipped the wink from circles in the government about how long lockdown will last. My guess. September at the earliest.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

10 hours ago, DAVIDB69 said:

It will be ended with results standing I suspect

 

The Scottish football authorities will act depending on the following: 

1. Whatever leaves them least open to legal action; and

2. Whichever one of the Old Firm will be easier for them to placate. 

Ending the season with the current standings will probably result in court action from both Sevco and Hearts at a minimum. However if they void the season they can at least argue it was impossible to complete due to Government-implemented restrictions and the fact that mathematically, no one had been promoted or relegated or won titles. I suspect legally that would be an easier position to defend. 

We'll probably end up with a ham-fisted league reconstruction which everyone hates. 

 

[mishtergrolsch]

Anyone that thinks this will just all blow over in a couple of months really dosent grasp the seriousness of this virus. No danger will there be any football till September / October at the earliest - until theres a vaccine social distancing and lockdown will be the norm.

The government will (rightly so) be bricking it over a second wave crushing the NHS as it's not even at peak yet and look at the state of the hospitals and wider NHS. They wont be letting manky football fans of all ages who don't wash their hands after a pish and cough incessantly all over the place congregate in their thousands every weekend till this is well and truly under control.

The leagues will end up being called how they are imo. Two up, no relegation with a 14 team and split thing in the Premiership and 2 up and 2 auto relegation spots across the leagues to go back to the regular numbers at the end of next season.

Essentially would then allow players to move on or agree to stay at clubs as contracts would still run out as normal as the season would now be finished. No clubs are relegated so no "even though we've been shite all season we could have miraculously won our last x games and stayed up" pish as it's taken care of, teams miles ahead with clearly no way of being caught by anyone and clearly haven't run out of ideas or steam (ahem) can finally clinch the title after 4 fucking years of chucking tons of idiots and money at it. Any clubs who moan about missing out on Europe can do one as they'll be lucky enough to still be running by the time things are on the go again and should be strongly reminded theres a bigger picture going on here. I'd doubt the european cups will be run in the normal manner anyway.

Not ideal but I think it causes less issues than it creates.

[mishtergrolsch]

2 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

The Scottish football authorities will act depending on the following: 

1. Whatever leaves them least open to legal action; and

2. Whichever one of the Old Firm will be easier for them to placate. 

Ending the season with the current standings will probably result in court action from both Sevco and Hearts at a minimum. However if they void the season they can at least argue it was impossible to complete due to Government-implemented restrictions and the fact that mathematically, no one had been promoted or relegated or won titles. I suspect legally that would be an easier position to defend. 

We'll probably end up with a ham-fisted league reconstruction which everyone hates. 

 

If you void the season the surely you'll have a huge number of clubs to placate as they've all spent money on investing in a certain goal and now it basically dosent count. Tbf I could see that scenario working before half the games were played but we're almost at the finish line. My guess is only the Rangers would be happy with that.

 

Which, thinking about it, is what the SFA will be happy with.

Consider it voided, lads.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Just now, mishtergrolsch said:

IMy guess is only the Rangers would be happy with that.

Which, thinking about it, is what the SFA will be happy with.

Consider it voided, lads.

Yep 

 

[RandomGuy.]

36 minutes ago, mishtergrolsch said:

 

The leagues will end up being called how they are imo. Two up, no relegation with a 14 team and split thing in the Premiership and 2 up and 2 auto relegation spots across the leagues to go back to the regular numbers at the end of next season.

How do you split a 14 team league, so you still have 4 OF games? Without making one half play more games than the other half? And without forcing one club to sit idle during every game week?

Edited April 2, 2020 by RandomGuy.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

24 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

How do you split a 14 team league, so you still have 4 OF games? Without making one half play more games than the other half? And without forcing one club to sit idle during every game week?

Don't split it 7/7. Split it 6/8

[RandomGuy.]

35 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Don't split it 7/7. Split it 6/8

So the bottom half teams have to play more games?

[craigkillie]

Wimbledon statement says “With the likelihood that the Government’s measures will continue for many months...” they can’t prepare properly and they have ruled out a postponement because “the people supplies and services legally required to stage the Championships would not be available at any point this summer”.
Not definitive, but quite a strong indication that organised sport won’t be happening before the end of August.
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2020-04-01/cancellation_of_the_championships_2020.html
 

Wimbledon is an international event that requires large scale movement of people between countries. That is incredibly risky at the moment, and anyway it is unlikely that there will be many flights operating long into the autumn.

That is quite different from domestic sporting leagues which are much more localised. I'm therefore not sure Wimbledon is any sort of guide for how the SPFL will operate.

[Nightmare]

4 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

So the bottom half teams have to play more games?

Yeah. They currently use this format in Romania. Top 6 play 36 games, bottom 8 play 40.

Teams in the same league playing a different number of fixtures isn't perfect, but it would actually suit Scottish football quite well as it means the TV companies get to keep the 4 games they really care about, and those in the bottom eight get more games to offset losing their third fixture against the bigots. The only teams really disadvantaged from a fixture perspective are the top six, but you could always work around that by distributing the prize money slightly differently.

[super_carson]

12 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Wimbledon is an international event that requires large scale movement of people between countries. That is incredibly risky at the moment, and anyway it is unlikely that there will be many flights operating long into the autumn.

That is quite different from domestic sporting leagues which are much more localised. I'm therefore not sure Wimbledon is any sort of guide for how the SPFL will operate.

Added to that, London is likely to be effected for far longer than the rest of the country given its density of population. 

[Guest Flash]

13 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

 

First to publish it maybe. Most clubs have been in furlough either mostly or entirely since the option was made available. We certainly have. Queen of the South closed all operations from 20th March and sent everyone home.

I don’t think closing operations and sending everyone home is the same as furlough.

[Monkey Tennis]

2 minutes ago, Flash said:

I don’t think closing operations and sending everyone home is the same as furlough.

I thought we ceased operating as a football club in early January.

Such vision and foresight.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

How do you split a 14 team league, so you still have 4 OF games? Without making one half play more games than the other half? And without forcing one club to sit idle during every game week?

Unless you’re an OCD weirdo there’s nothing inherently wrong with ‘forcing one club to sit idle’: it’s called a free week. Managers can use it to rest players, focus on training or anything else they want.

A 7-7 split after 26 games results in a 38 game season for everyone and equal home and away fixtures as well: as opposed to the back of a fag packet fixture list of the current split, which can’t even do that. A 6/8 split with the bottom half playing fully four extra games (a lot of which would be dead rubbers because there’s not eight teams left in a relegation battle with four games to go) is idiotic as well. 

[Guest Flash]

24 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Wimbledon is an international event that requires large scale movement of people between countries. That is incredibly risky at the moment, and anyway it is unlikely that there will be many flights operating long into the autumn.

That is quite different from domestic sporting leagues which are much more localised. I'm therefore not sure Wimbledon is any sort of guide for how the SPFL will operate.

Yeah, they mention the international aspect as well elsewhere. It was really the point they made about people, supplies and services not being available at any point this summer that caught my eye. Appreciate that I might be reading too much into that, though. And they also have to make a decision now which could turn out to have been over cautious.

[The Master]

Just now, virginton said:

Unless you’re an OCD weirdo there’s nothing inherently wrong with ‘forcing one club to sit idle’: it’s called a free week. Managers can use it to rest players, focus on training or anything else they want.

Nothing inherently wrong, except for the blindingly obvious issue with having one team sit out on the last day of the season.

[Skyline Drifter]

37 minutes ago, Flash said:

I don’t think closing operations and sending everyone home is the same as furlough.

Ok, legally thats the case, but we are furloughed and I am well aware that several other clubs are too. Dundee United, if indeed they did just do it, are not the first, just the first to say so publicly (if indeed they are, I havent gone looking). United havent furloughed everyone I see. They are 'operating with a skeleton staff'. 

[vikingTON]

31 minutes ago, The Master said:

Nothing inherently wrong, except for the blindingly obvious issue with having one team sit out on the last day of the season.

The second set of post-split fixtures is determined after 32 games and whoever is sitting 7th and 8th in the table gets the last day free instead of the two most likely dead rubber fixtures in the entire division. We already cherrypick the fixture list when setting the last Old Firm match of the season so this is not a new concept.