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MOT View: PL club chief has a radical 19/20 solution that would be brilliant for Leeds promotion
There’s no football until at least April 30 and many people are saying it’s unlikely to resume at the start of May given the state of the Coronavirus outbreak.
All the will in the football world is to get the 19/20 season finished but the big question is how and when.
The EFL and the Premier League are putting on a united front at the moment and that’s critical for Leeds’ promotion hopes.
It’s all well and good the Championship finishing but it would all be for nothing if the Premier League scrapped the 19/20 season along with promotion and relegation, and vice versa.
Southampton chief executive Martin Semmens has put forward a radical solution that would see Premier League games playing behind closed doors every day until the season was done.
He said that would be a double win, with the season getting finished and football providing entertainment
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If that was to happen the likelihood is that the EFL would do the same for the Championship and that could see Leeds promoted ready for a full 20/21 Premier League season.
As quoted in the Times, Semmens said, “When everybody is safe and we’re not using up NHS and police resources, the government would like us to get back to playing because we are entertainment and a sign that the country is coming back to normal.
“If people are home for another month and Premier League football is on the TV every day that can only be a good thing. Not because we are more essential than the NHS but because we can give people entertainment and show that we’re fighting back.”
Semmens went on to say that the ambition of the Premier League is still to play all the remaining fixtures by June 30 but if this date had to be extended by a couple of weeks, he saw no issue with player contracts being extended for the same period.
The Coronavirus poses a very direct threat to the public’s health but it will have very serious knock-on effects too.
One is mental health and with people now self-isolating, this could be a very serious secondary threat to the more vulnerable.
It might sound trivial but football could really help here.
We spent Sunday afternoon watching a six-hour Leeds extravaganza on Sky Sports and it reminded us how much we miss football.
If the Premier League and Championship were to return in May or June, with live matches every day, it would give the UK’s football fans something to focus on and to look forward to.
Some may say that football is meaningless and that there are more important things to focus on. That is true to an extent but we truly believe a solution like the one Semmens has put forward would be a big net positive to society as well as to clubs like Leeds.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay details how close Leeds were to absolutely sensational signing ripping it up in 19/20