MOT View: West Brom can have Championship title if this is what Leeds must do
Leeds United are likely to resume their bid to win automatic promotion to the Premier League next month without any fans inside Elland Road.
With the coronavirus pandemic still causing hundreds of deaths each day in the UK, it is going to be a long time before fans can return to stadiums so we strongly suspect that all of Leeds’ last nine matches will be closed off to the public.
That’s fine. It is tough to take that we won’t be able to attend Elland Road to watch the Whites finally return to the Premier League but that is far better than us winning it by points-per-game or having the entire season voided.
Although players will be able to push each other around, mark each other, tackle each other and everything else footballers do, there are still measures in place to ensure social distancing rules are enacting where possible.
And, as seen in Austria this week, lifting trophies will also be subjected to social distancing guidelines.
Red Bull Salzburg won the 2019/20 Austrian Cup on Friday as they beat Austria Lustenau 5-0 at the empty Wörthersee Stadion.
The win was nothing but routine for Salzburg but when the players were handed, it was anything but that as they all had to stand in there own little circles and couldn’t touch one another.
We couldn’t bear to see Leeds do this. It looks so awkward and after 90 minutes of playing a contact sport, it seems pretty much pointless.
The players are not even two metres apart and they’re passing around a huge piece of metal that could transmit the coronavirus from one person to another.
First and foremost, we want Leeds to win promotion – finishing second is just as good as first.
But if finishing first means that Leeds players will have to do something like that then West Brom can have the tile for all we care.
In other Leeds United news, a player binned by Marcelo Bielsa has spoken out about his “difficult” exit.