bairn88

Yeah 27 would be a farce. Any covid call off (would be inevitable given every league has faced them) would mean 2 weeks or so wiped out, meaning you’d have to play 3 times a week at best. Non starter. 7 or 8 games in 2 months give you some leeway

An 18 game season wouldn’t be everyone starting from 0, you know? It would be from where we are now (10/11 games), so only 7 to go - would only need to play on Saturdays, not midweek as well. 2 March - end of April is around 8 weekends.

This is delightful stuff. Had no idea he was at yous.

This may be flawed logic, but haven’t seen it mentioned - could an attributing factor to clubs being able to afford the testing be helped by the fact the entire playing and management staff will have been on furlough at every club since 11 Jan (til mid Feb it seems) - around 5 weeks. Thats 5 weeks where clubs would have otherwise been paying their players, and if they’re aiming to finish the season where it would have finished anyway (possibly a shortened season in number of games), that’s basically just a free 5 weeks for clubs? £15k per month would be easily covered by that furlough time?

2 March, apologies*

That’s 30/40k for rest of the season, and the government grant was 150k, as well as the James Anderson money at the start of the season. Definitely a whack more than I expected but think clubs will be fine with it.

Looks like we’ll be playing again from 2 March. So thats around 8/9 weeks to fit in 16 games or so if they want to do the full 27 games. Wonder if they’ll shorten it to just 18.

Anyone know the rules on transfer window extensions? It’s clear most clubs have (rightly) shut up shop and not done any business. Say it is agreed players can train from mid feb and games from March, is it as easy as SFA/Spfl saying ok you have another month, and that’s that? Or will it be a very contentious issue?

This is why I’m so conflicted in my own mind. I think it’s JUST too soon to think of sacking them - they are after all top of the league, after being about 8 points behind cove at one point. However, draw or defeat v montrose, and that just seems like absolute confirmation that these guys can’t cut it when the chips are down. Can the difference between managers being “ok for the job” and “must be sacked“ be really just 1 game? As Mark Corrigan says, it’s not a no-brainer - it’s a real brainer

Yeah saw that at the time. So it was an SFA/gov decision, which was then communicated to clubs, and the clubs then had a meeting with the SPFL in which their repeated requests to ask questions were denied? What a mess!

Does working in the interests of those clubs mean not giving any prior warning to around half of those clubs that they would no longer be able to play, offering zero communication on if they would be offered additional support for this, giving no indication of when and what criteria there is to be able to play again, and arranging a meeting where member clubs questions were shut down?

Fair enough.

What are your thoughts on how the suspension of football was handled a couple of weeks ago? Clubs given no notice and no say, not allowed to talk on the call despite assurances they could, no clear lines of communication since, no plan to restart football, and has taken all 20 clubs to unanimously write to them to present TO THEM a plan to restart? I’m not sure they have governed that at all well.

I haven’t noticed this “full backing”, although I haven’t seen/heard the McFarlane quote. I have seen deans say they are behind Lee and “Cracks”, but felt it was said in a very non emotive, management speak kind of way. Possibly you know more, but I get the impression the board know they can’t be sacked right now. Can’t sack managers top of the table. But also get the impression they’re not wholly convinced/impressed, and any further slip ups and the board wouldn’t be against cutting ties pretty quickly

Great stuff from all league 1 and league 2 clubs

I’m expecting him to fire up the well oiled twitter propaganda machine very soon - it’s been a quiet year for him

That was heartwarming, even for someone who is a miserable b*****d with zero connection to America like myself What a difference hearing messages of hope, logic, reason and togetherness rather than division, idiocy and untruth.

I have shown you that the top 2 (at least, haven’t bothered checking) leagues in holland are playing . Your statement “the Dutch have completely abandoned their season after originally starting it” is therefore untrue. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, even if you try the sarcy “well done for confirming Ajax are still playing” lol gag.

This doesn’t scream “Dutch league has been completely abandoned“ to me? Oh, maybe you mean the second tier? Nah, that’s still playing too? Onto the “Belgian third tier” - it is an amateur league. The Greek third tier - couldn’t find anything about it online, but I’ll take your word for it that it’s been shutdown. Greece, also, has one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe, with a nightly curfew between 21:00 and 05:00, despite daily deaths of around 50. If that is your sole example that Scotland is not an outlier in Europe, I’m not sure your point has much, if any, weight.

I’m not talking about breaches of protocol. The pretense that they’re “in a bubble” just is not true. They go home every single day to their families. They do the school run (when they were able to) and go to the supermarket like every other family. That is some bubble you have. Jonny Hayes was on the radio saying it’s more unsafe doing the school run or shopping every day than anything he encountered playing football. Again, evidence that whole leagues should be shut down isn’t there - indeed, the opposite is true.

Wait, do you and @Sergeant Wilsonthink the top leagues are operating in bubbles?!

Wouldn’t think so. Testing isn’t extremely expensive, just a small extra cost. If one club couldn’t afford it I’d hope there’d be some Loan/grant or clubs coming together to allow that club to test, for the good of the game to continue in this exceptional circumstance.

Yes sorry I should’ve clarified, testing needs to be mandatory. The fact that we were ever allowed to train and play together without at least once a week testing is incredible and a complete oversight. If it’s a financial thing where clubs can’t afford to test, then fair enough - only after a real suppression should league restart in that case

Don’t associate me with him please! Im not for one second arguing covid isn’t awful, isn’t worse than flu etc etc (that he’ll try and argue). Young athletes (and all those involved in any club) have been prevented from doing their job with, what I can see, little to zero evidence that their actions are detrimental to the fight against covid. I am genuinely shocked that people seem so happy to accept that. Banned from doing their job. Of course football isn’t life and death, I accept that, but I think that is almost by definition a straw man argument. As previously stated, the drastic action of shutting a profession down needs some drastic evidence. There’s been a lot of point and laughs from fans of clubs who just happen to be a place or 2 above the relegation spots, but little counter evidence. Maybe this forum is not the place for reasonable debate!

Check the league table lad - Falkirk are top