MOT View: Boris Johnson comment may hint at when football could be ready to resume
Although there are bigger priorities at the moment, football fans are desperate to know when the sport they love will be allowed to resume.
Leeds United fans, especially, want to know, with Marcelo Bielsa’s promotion charge currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Initially, the EFL announced that all games had been suspended until April 3 but on Thursday, that date was pushed back until April 30.
It still seems optimistic to say that Leeds will be able to resume their bid to reach the Premier League at the end of next month and Boris Johnson’s latest comment has suggested that.
According to the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom can start to get a stranglehold on the coronavirus in 12 weeks’ time – which is mid-June.
“We can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks… and send coronavirus packing in this country, but only if we all take the steps we have outlined,” said the Prime Minister, as quoted by BBC News’ official Twitter account.
Does that mean that Johnson expects the impact of the virus to start subsiding by the middle of June? And if so, is that when we might start to see the FA, Premier League and EFL begin to consider reconvening the season?
It might be a tad optimistic on our behalf but it seems a lot more realistic for football to return in the middle of June rather than at the end of April.
Leeds have nine games to play and will no doubt want them to be done and dusted before June 30 due to the expiration of loan deals and certain contracts.
But that seems unlikely, with the season now potentially running well into July and perhaps even August, if Johnson’s 12-week prediction is correct.
In other Leeds United news, fans are saying the same thing about this “immense” player after Phil Hay’s latest update on him.