The Ref Stop

How long before Coronavirus impact on Football is over?

My eldest daughter (a midwife) has just rang me asking whether she should send her Year 1 youngest son back to school in a few weeks or not?
I found it very hard to give an answer, yes, a five year old should be fine, BUT, what does he bring home to his 7 year old brother AND ultimately my daughter who is going into a maternity hospital etc...8-9 weeks of isolation ruined!! Tough one!!!
 
The Ref Stop
If tried to fix it but made it only slightly better, no idea what you've done there.

All employers have a duty of care to their employees. There are examples of key workers who have not been able to return to work as they live with someone in the most at risk category, attempting to force them back to work would be a serious breach of that duty of care and possibly even lead to legal cases if their action resulted in someone dying. I have a cousin who falls into that category, she has severe asthma that has seen her hospitalised numerous times since childhood and catching the virus would be life threatening. For that reason her husband cannot return to work and the children won't be able to go back to school, none of them have left the house since lock down as the risk would just be too great.

We don't know how bad Troy Deeney's son's condition is, if he has severe breathing difficulties and the family have been advised to self isolate then he is absolutely correct to not return to training. Even if it doesn't fall into that category I think he has the absolute right to protect his family.

Even more relevant now as Watford have just confirmed that they had three infections from the Premier League's first round of testing, one player and two staff members.
 
Wow. That is 3 cases (from just one club) that very unlikely to have been identified had PL not decided to restart and test all players/staff.

How many more unidentified cases are out there? Makes a compelling case for enforcing social distancing to stay around for a while.
 
Wow. That is 3 cases (from just one club) that very unlikely to have been identified had PL not decided to restart and test all players/staff.

How many more unidentified cases are out there? Makes a compelling case for enforcing social distancing to stay around for a while.
There were 6 in total out of the 700+ individuals tested. 0.8% positive compared to the latest estimate in the general population of 0.25%. So, in one sense, surprisingly high but on the other hand it's not in a different ballpark. Social distancing will continue for now ... but if (partly as a result of that) we see those already low percentages continue to fall, then I'm sure pressure will mount for a return to (near) normal.
 
Good to start with the big boys, Arsenal, City and Dem Blades.... he really doesn’t like being kicked that Grealish!
 
Do we think with games behind closed doors simulation detection might increase? Without the roar of a croud shouting pen do we think the referee might be less swayed in not making a simulation call?
 
Do we think with games behind closed doors simulation detection might increase? Without the roar of a croud shouting pen do we think the referee might be less swayed in not making a simulation call?


imo, less likely to happen, as cheats thrive on the attention
No fans to impress, less chance
 
I’ve got matches to referee! Starting 6th and 7th of June with U15 and U20 friendlies. I’m waiting on schedules for for adult 4th to 7th tiers to come out imminently.

Also had a work meeting in a room with people today.

And then found out that my 7 yo’s best friend’s little bro has a temperature today but they are not getting him tested. Testing same day - result tomorrow - on request for all here. TBH I’d isolate the whole fam and get the test if any of us got a fever. I just think why take a chance and risk anyone else? Awkward.
 
With football returning and todays neutral venue news

can they not just play every game at St Georges?

In a word, no. If you look at the schedule it looks to me like it will be ...

Friday 8pm 1 game
Saturday 12:30pm 1 game
Saturday 3pm 2 games
Saturday5:30pm 1 game
Saturday 8pm 1 game
Sunday midday 1 game
Sunday 2pm 1 game
Sunday 4:30pm 1 game
Sunday 7pm 1 game

You'd be seriously hard pushed to play all of those at one ground, it just wouldn't work. But even worse is the midweek schedule. It looks like every team will play in the slots above and then also on one of Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at either 6pm or 8pm. That's 10 games over 6 kick off slots, not going to work at a single or even two or three neutral venues.

Neutral venues are only needed where there is a significant risk of fans trying to turn up, loosely translated as any game where Liverpool may win the title or potentially a derby match. In reality the title could be finished within a week of restarting, so the vast majority of games can be played at the home venue. And of course results in Germany have suggested that playing behind closed doors almost totally removes any element of home advantage, so it really doesn't matter where games are played.
 
In a word, no. If you look at the schedule it looks to me like it will be ...

Friday 8pm 1 game
Saturday 12:30pm 1 game
Saturday 3pm 2 games
Saturday5:30pm 1 game
Saturday 8pm 1 game
Sunday midday 1 game
Sunday 2pm 1 game
Sunday 4:30pm 1 game
Sunday 7pm 1 game

You'd be seriously hard pushed to play all of those at one ground, it just wouldn't work. But even worse is the midweek schedule. It looks like every team will play in the slots above and then also on one of Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at either 6pm or 8pm. That's 10 games over 6 kick off slots, not going to work at a single or even two or three neutral venues.

Neutral venues are only needed where there is a significant risk of fans trying to turn up, loosely translated as any game where Liverpool may win the title or potentially a derby match. In reality the title could be finished within a week of restarting, so the vast majority of games can be played at the home venue. And of course results in Germany have suggested that playing behind closed doors almost totally removes any element of home advantage, so it really doesn't matter where games are played.


I thought they had multiple parks..

Rangers and Celtic have 4/5/6 parks suitable so I thought St George might
 
I thought they had multiple parks..

Rangers and Celtic have 4/5/6 parks suitable so I thought St George might

There are loads of pitches there, but lots of support crew needed per game so you really need stadiums. There's also the TV crews needed to cover the games. Four of five outside broadcast units at the same venue would be very difficult to support. I'm also not sure the authorities would want to see games on what was essentially a park pitch with no stands, not sending out a very good image.
 
There are a few parks referees on here who'd do a far better job of VAR than some of the efforts from this seasons debacles!!!
 
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