What To Do?

A question that works on multiple levels.

Star of Bethlehem weed is biggest
casualty of suspended play

Closer to home, I have had to find other things to do with the approximately 16 hours a week I spend watching soccer (8-10 games per week [4 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 2-4 weekday] at 1 hour 45 minutes per game).  This week the time went to a long bike ride with BFS Scandinavian Correspondent Philip S, some good runs, and six buckets of the pervasive Star of Bethlehem pulled from my lawn.  Also, a lot of Football Manager.  Golf was supposed to fill a big chunk of the void but my club and most courses are closed.

More broadly the question applies to what will happen to the various leagues when this period of contest interruptus is over.  But it's hard to answer that when we don't know:

1) how long will play be suspended
2) how long will leagues need to get started once the suspensions are lifted

One question has been answered.  The 2020 Euro Championships have been postponed until 2021.  The press release from UEFA is here.  Note that the release does discuss how this postponement might work to allow for completion of the current club competitions.

And what of those competitions?  Sounds like there are already discussions on how to complete the Champions League and the Europa League.  Cool.  But what about the domestic leagues?  EPL's updated position is outlined here.  Games will begin no earlier than April 30.  The rule that requires the season to be completed by June 1 is waived.  But they still have the problem of bumping into the start of next season.  Ideas for dealing with an incomplete season are discussed here.  The idea to declare the season null and void is dumb.  They played more than 75% of the games.  Are we to pretend that it just didn't happen?  They could likely finish the season in two months, maybe less, since most teams have only nine games left.  The bigger problem might be how much lead time is needed before games could start.

Completing the entire season would obviously be best (unless you're Aston Villa).   If they have to accept a less than complete season, the next decision would be about promotion/relegation.  That gets complicated.  For example, the top two from the Championship division are automatically promoted while third through sixth compete in a knockout playoff for a third promotion spot.  Do we just take the top three and bag the playoff?  And what about relegation from the EPL?  The current bottom three would have had nine more games to stave off demotion.  Is it fair to drop them without a complete season?  An idea being discussed would promote the current first and second place teams from the Championship division (West Brom and Leeds) while not relegating any side from the EPL.  The 2020-21 season would have 22 teams with four facing relegation.  Haven't read about the ripple effect through the lower divisions but obviously there would be some things to work out.  I know one person who would be fine with this (looking at you Dennis).

MLS updated their situation Thursday.  Details are here.  Games will not start until May 10 at the earliest.  They do express the intent to complete the season in full.  But losing two plus months makes that seem difficult.  Currently the MLS Cup final would be on November 10; how far back can they push that?  Would require many mid-week matches.

Most depressing thing in the last week?  On Wednesday, the day before spring, the Inquirer sports section was six pages on the NFL draft and little else.

The good news is that there is no sign of COVID-19 infecting my Football Manager virtual reality and it's January 25th in the game.  We may be safe.

And may you be safe too.

P.S. - Jeff H sends along this article from Rory Smith of the NY Times.  I get some of what he's saying.  But I also think about how American fans have returned after the various strikes of the major sports leagues.  And those were situations in which the fans were angry at the organizations and players because the stoppages were self-inflicted.