Yellow&Blue&Red

I'd definitely prefer silence, or the sound of the players and coaches which is vaguely interesting and at least authentic, than to have fake crowd sounds. And whilst I agree that's going to WAY less good than watching football played in front of a passionate noisy crowd, it's stil better than nothing. I'm stuck at home and the news is... depressing isn't a strong enough word for it. I need diversions to avoid going completely mad. And football does that for me. I watched 45 mins of Belarussian football last night and I found myself shouting when the goals went in.

Definitely follow the logic, but I don't think we can be sure that's what's going to happen... The government will loosen some restrictions for the sake of the economy, even whilst the pandemic continues. And my guess is that football - the premier league at least - will lobby hard to be allowed to carry on behind closed doors. I can imagine them getting their way.

Government messaging has been a mess. They've said we're aiming for herd immunity then rolled back from that. They've said they're stopping testing under most circumstances and now they've said they're ramping up. They said that all over 70s should self-isolate, then they said that wasn't the plan, then they said... I'm actually not sure anymore. Government policy has been a mess. First they advised we should just wash our hands, then that we need to start social distancing, then they ramped it up to say it's critically important to social distance, and really critically important if you live in London, but they've left all bars and restaurants open when we know from other countires that they'll be closing them soon... same approach with schools. All the time those who are infected are infecting others and we face the likely prospect of the NHS being overwhelmed. They should be shutting down everything now - we need to push back the tidal wave of critical cases that are coming as far as possible whilst we increase our capacity and capability to cope. Secure the maximum possible protective equipment, increase our capacity to test, build and buy as many ventillators as possible and hope that warmer weather might slow down the virus's advance. We expect to be overwhelmed, yet we're not doing everything in our power to limit the chaos! Both by their words and their deeds, the government has failed to project calm and a sense of control. People are panic buying and it's left to the supermarkets to try and control it. Sterling is tanking vs the Euro and the Dollar as the international money markets pass their judgement on the steps being taken by UK PLC. I've seen it said higher up the thread that those criticising the government are just revealing their political biases. I have to say I think the opposite. Those that are defending the government at the moment are revealing and relying upon their biases. This may not be a time for political point scoring, but it's a very different thing and entirely to be expected that people will express their anger at lethal political incompetence.

@redapple First I made an assumption about your age which was wrong - sorry for that! Second, you may be right that young people are more selfish now, but I think that's really hard to know. And these people may just be reacting carelessly - it's the same point I made above and hardly worth re-saying. Third, good luck with your partner's operation. My wife had an operation a couple of weeks ago (which went well). I think looking at the rate of change in the number of UK cases, it seems unlikely that the situation by next week is going to be so serious as to affect planned operations. But as I say, good luck.

It can certainly look that way, but perhaps if there'd been internet when you were a lad (or lass)... people would have said stupid things on online message boards - things they didn't really think about or mean - back then too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing what you're saying, just offering another explanation.

Everyone keeps focussing on these 2 stats: - 80% get it mildly - 1-3% are killed by it... we don't really know yet. But a major concern is the people in the middle: -15% get severe symptoms (some of whom may need to be hospitalised) - 5% get critically ill and WILL need hospital (some of whom then die) For many people this will be FAR worse than the flu and it's because of this group - the whole 20% who have severe symptoms or worse - that we're talking about social distancing etc. Only 10,000 people have got Covid-19 in Italy and the hospitals are already creaking - as you'd expect - 2,000 extra people in a relatively small area needing hospitalisation and respirators - no health service has that much spare capacity. Ours certainly doesn't. We're not thinking about cancelling all major sporting events and closing schools just because of a few thousand or tens of thousands of extra deaths which from a whole population perspective isn't that serious (although for the people and families involved, it clearly is and it's flippant and calous to say otherwise). We're thinking of these uniquely serious steps because there's no way our infrastructre could cope if very large numbers of us got the disease at the same time - which is certainly possible without these steps. We MUST delay how fast it travels through the population to improve our capacity to handle it as as a society. The good news - and there is some! - is that the number of new cases has declined for two days in a row. Far, far too early to say this is a trend. But it's better than the alternatives.

There's a middle ground between panic and complacency. We have no herd immunity so the fact it's about as deadly as flu* isn't the only consideration. The risk is that many more people will get it than get the flu (20-25% of diamond princess passengers in less than a month), so even with low fatality rates that's serious. We know it's spreading in multiple countries and the authorities can't find the source cases. It's likely that it's also spreading in other locations that haven't yet been identified. That doesn't mean we should give up on containment. We need to keep working to slow down the spread to give heath services as much time as possible to prepare. That doesn't mean canceling football matches yet, but it might do soon. *I think that's wrong. Just checked a source which says seasons flu mortality is lower

This could be a game changer. The EFL has always been frightened of enforcing FFP. Now it's got to be frightened of failure to enforce.

No - I agree it looks like a long shot! Certainly need more than just poor Bury going under for government to do anything about it. Looks like there have been periodic calls from government for better football governance for over 50 years! But I think hoping that the EFL will come up with meaningful reforms is even more unlikely.

I've just had a look at the EFL's Mem and Arts registered at Companies House. Each club in the football league holds a share in The Football League Ltd. for as long as they remain in the league. Six of nine board members are appointed are club represenatives: 3 from the Championship, 2 from L1 and 1 from L2. In order to change any of the rules, a majority of clubs need to vote for it... ...which is why we are where we are and why things won't change without external - governmental - intervention. I love the way the FSA in @phantom's post, above, are suggesting parallels between listed buildings and clubs. Owners of listed buildings can't just do what they want with them, and the same should apply to club owners.

Isn't the EFL just the clubs self-regulating?? Because if it's just the clubs self-regulating, it's hardly surprising that the rules are lax. Business owners won't vote for tougher regulations with penalties, controls over how they spend their money or constraints on who they can sell their businesses to when they've got bored or run out of money? Maybe some tweaks but nothing of the kind that's needed. Businesses go bust all the time - it's the way capitalism works. If we don't want clubs to go bust on a regular basis, or for them to be subject to asset stripping or other predatory practices that are part of the rough and tumble of any other sector... if instead we want them to be treated like community assets, then we need legislation. We need an independent regulator, empowered in law to manage participation in the football league so that there's genuine FFP, rules that work to provide ownership oversight and to provide protection for communities of fans who - unlike in other business sectors, don't shop around.

I suspect that's not going to work. The club owes HMRC £1m. Their other debts before the CVA were £7m and they still have to pay a significant proportion of those. And the EFL estimates they need £1.5m to run the club for the year ahead - which they don't have. Dale bought the club for £1 in December, it's worth way less than that now, meaning, presumably, that he's going to have to take on personal liability for the debt, or at least a lot of it, when he sells the club - which I guess he can't do - or he's going to have to let it go bust.

I'm not sure that's right. Eddie Davies had bottomless pockets when it came to Bolton... until suddenly he didn't, at which point all the player contacts that has been signed became unaffordable. Now look at them. How much better to have clear rules linking expenditure to real income: rights, gates and sponsorship. That way, you stay afloat, whoever owns you. It's not normal capitalism, which might be why it feels odd - the idea that a business should have rules which restrict investment IS unusual. But you can't have it both ways: either football clubs are community institutions which endure over generations, or they're normal businesses which go bust from time to time.

Thanks @Mr Popodopolous for posting these. Really interesting. Based on what we know of EFL's handling of Birmingham and whatever else, what do you think will (as opposed to ought to) happen to Wednesday, Villa and Derby?

I was there last night. Miserable night for the Dons: 1. It was hard to get in! The one person selling tickets to away fans first ran out of tickets, then ran out of change. Queued for tickets for 20 mins. TINPOT! 2. We scored 2 own goals, despite having the better of the game. (And despite the ref wrongly crediting the first goal to one of them).

...kind of you to say Archie and I've got the fondest memories of Plough Lane - our last REAL home - but comparing it to the Nou Camp.... Ah **** it, I'll take the compliment!! As for the memorial tent city... Well it's certainly different!

I was there. Could easily have been six. I don't get to watch Wimbledon that often but we've been having a horrible season. They made us look great. And although it's nostalgic standing on terraces it's really no exaggeration to say their facilities are 30 years out of date.