Coronavirus and the Scottish Championship

[Hammerafc]

No football until June 10 means that this season will never be finished. You still need another 11 match-days in the lower leagues after that, plus an actual summer break for the players, then pre-season. Oh and with most of the player contracts running out halfway during the remainder of this rump campaign: so much for the 'sporting integrity' argument then.
I'm really not sure what there is to talk about until then but I'm sure the chief executives of most clubs will be delighted to have all their planning for next season put on hold for another two months so that clubs continuing humming and hawing over a set of mutually exclusive proposals instead.

You don't need a summer break when all football stopped before the middle of March. You could play 2 games a week from June 10th to finish the season and then go into next season.

[invergowrie arab]

Fair play to all the Dees on here. They have gone right up in my estimation.

No skin in the game but fighting indefatigably for the integrity of the league.

2 minutes ago, Hammerafc said:

17 minutes ago, virginton said:

No football until June 10 means that this season will never be finished. You still need another 11 match-days in the lower leagues after that, plus an actual summer break for the players, then pre-season. Oh and with most of the player contracts running out halfway during the remainder of this rump campaign: so much for the 'sporting integrity' argument then.
I'm really not sure what there is to talk about until then but I'm sure the chief executives of most clubs will be delighted to have all their planning for next season put on hold for another two months so that clubs continuing humming and hawing over a set of mutually exclusive proposals instead.

You don't need a summer break when all football stopped before the middle of March. You could play 2 games a week from June 10th to finish the season and then go into next season.

There isn't going to be football from 10 June either. The season is finished

[vikingTON]

1 minute ago, Hammerafc said:

You don't need a summer break when all football stopped before the middle of March. You could play 2 games a week from June 10th to finish the season and then go into next season.

No you couldn't. Just because footballers are not doing group training right now does not mean that they're on a break. There is no prospect of PFA Scotland and the SPFL signing up to this yer da' level nonsense.

[Sergeant Wilson]

3 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

I'm surprised we haven't had the Armageddon word thrown in to this debate.

Daily Record burst baw picture incoming.

[MONKMAN]

Queens have voted in favour.

[SUPERSOUTH]

http://www.qosfc.com/news-4994

[Derry Alli]

15 minutes ago, virginton said:

Just because footballers are not doing group training right now does not mean that they're on a break. 

They should be. 

[Ludo*1]

I reckon this is going through - We've been suspiciously quiet, we usually fire out a statement.

[Diamonds are Forever]

36 minutes ago, Hammerafc said:

51 minutes ago, virginton said:

No football until June 10 means that this season will never be finished. You still need another 11 match-days in the lower leagues after that, plus an actual summer break for the players, then pre-season. Oh and with most of the player contracts running out halfway during the remainder of this rump campaign: so much for the 'sporting integrity' argument then.
I'm really not sure what there is to talk about until then but I'm sure the chief executives of most clubs will be delighted to have all their planning for next season put on hold for another two months so that clubs continuing humming and hawing over a set of mutually exclusive proposals instead.

You don't need a summer break when all football stopped before the middle of March. You could play 2 games a week from June 10th to finish the season and then go into next season.

 

You don't need a full summer break but you do need a proper pre-season. There is no group training until June 10th, you cannot expect players to just rock up on 10th June having not trained or seen a team-mate for 3 months and play a run of 8 games in a month. It would be farcical.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Diamonds are Forever

[vikingTON]

17 minutes ago, Dele said:

They should be. 

No they shouldn't because the league has not been formally concluded yet.

[Derry Alli]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

No they shouldn't because the league has not been formally concluded yet.

They shouldn't be doing any work whilst furloughed. 

[DiegoDiego]

No you couldn't. Just because footballers are not doing group training right now does not mean that they're on a break.

Please, as if Gary Harkins hasn't been tucking into multiple Fray Bentos pies followed by a Kit Kat Easter egg this evening.

[Skyline Drifter]

7 minutes ago, Dele said:

They shouldn't be doing any work whilst furloughed. 

They theoretically shouldnt be following any club dictated fitness programme but lets not get silly. They will be keeping fit as best they can within guidelines. The Govt is encouraging that in the general population, it would by luducrous to suggest a pro athlete isnt allowed to do fitness work as its part of their normal 'work'.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Skyline Drifter

[DA Baracus]

With the season now suspended until 10th June they now have no option but to call it. In what form remains to be seen but this season cannot now be finished for reasons I've stated before, but I'll note them again now:

- Players will be out of contract. You can't force them to re-sign. If transfers were not allowed during a certain period there's still absolutely nothing to stop some clubs from offering a PCA with a signing on bonus that would just happen to be the same amount of wages they would have collected had they signed right away. Some clubs might be able to afford to do this with the better players of other teams who are out of contract.

- Some clubs won't yet be in the position to extend contracts. It won't be in their budget.

- Clubs will struggle to pay everyone as they'll be getting no income from the remaining games but will have to pay everyone in full. Clubs usually (not all before some folk point out the exceptions) budget season to season. There will be no cash coming in to cover the resumption of the season, and the 19/20 budget will only have covered some costs until the originally stated end of the season. Some clubs don't sign players during June and leave it as late as they can so that they can save money by not having to pay out wages for a month and a bit.

- As per above, some clubs will struggle to assemble a squad. Out of contract players might be happy to sign a brief extension to finish the season but the clubs might not be able to match the same terms. The player can then sign for someone else. Clubs might have to assemble a total team of jobbers (Jobbers Assemble would be a great film!) and could then tumble down the table. That isn't any more fair than declaring current places as final.

- It affects next season. We need to try and get next season to run as much as possible, i.e. play as many games as possible. We can't prioritise 8 games if it means missing out on double that next season. Clubs need to be able to have as many home games on as possible to generate income. Having a truncated season will obviously massively hinder budgets.

[DA Baracus]

Just now, Skyline Drifter said:

They theoretically shouldnt be following any club dictated fitness programne but lets not get silly. They will be keeping fit as best they can within guidelines. The Govt is encouraging that in the general population, it would by luducrous to suggest a pro athlete isnt allowed to do fitness work as its part of their normal 'work'.

They can still be given fitness plans. Are the government really going to go round every footballer and check to see what they do each day, and then prove where they got the fitness plan from? Will they be checking thousands of email trails and searching through computers owned by clubs to prove where an email came from?

Of course not. Your last sentence sums it up. 

[Derry Alli]

Oh my. That was absolutely fucking terrible bait too. 

[parsforlife]

39 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

http://www.qosfc.com/news-4994

For anyone who can’t be bothered clicking the link, this is the statement.

 ‘we’ve been utterly shit all season and the ever aging Dobbie, looks like he won’t save us, we are utterly delighted the spfl have put forward a proposal that will save our dire team from their rightful relegation and fully support it as we have no ability to avoid this by playing games of football’

Edited April 9, 2020 by parsforlife

[Thistle_do_nicely]

20 minutes ago, Dele said:

They shouldn't be doing any work whilst furloughed. 

Yeah, I thought that was the case - was bolded in the email we got where we had to confirm consent to be furloughed in my work that we must not do any work related activity while on furlough.

I mean I'm not a professional athlete tbf, but outside of being expected to be doing some gym work at home (club and public facilities aren't going to be open to use) and watching their diet in order to make sure they report back in an acceptable condition, there's not really much they can do to keep match sharp, and even in a normal off season they'll still have some sort of basic standards to keep to; the current situation is probably similar except it'll be harder for some professionals/semi-professionals across SPFL level to get access to pitches, swimming pools etc. etc. so there's probably less they can realistically do to stay fit.

I've a feeling any club trying to strictly enforce what players get up to while they're furloughed could - at least in theory - end up getting royally fucked and end up owing back some/all of what they get to keep paying wages from grants. I think it's in players interests to make sure that when they report back for training (or considering the way things are going, end up having to look for a new club) that they're at an acceptable level of fitness, though, so as long as clubs aren't being ridiculous with what they ask then there shouldn't be any Lee Wallace's.

It's all a bit moot because I think it's more likely that we won't see any football played for the rest of this calendar year than it is that clubs can get back to playing.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Ludo*1]

I don't but the Courier but I was puzzled by this screenshot. The Courier had a kind of iconic look (Even after it left the broadsheet design format) when did it start aiming to look more like a generic newspaper in terms of style?

Edited April 10, 2020 by Speroni*1

[Distant Doonhamer]

7 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

For anyone who can’t be bothered clicking the link, this is the statement.

 ‘we’ve been utterly shit all season and the ever aging Dobbie, looks like he won’t save us, we are utterly delighted the spfl have put forward a proposal that will save our dire team from their rightful relegation and fully support it as we have no ability to avoid this by playing games of football’

Spot on. It just needs an additional line thanking current Partick Thistle player Darren Brownlie for scoring the winner for QOS at Firhill earlier in the season thereby keeping us ahead in terms of points per game.