Loderingo

I hope you made it. Malta are supposed to be quarantining everyone who comes in for 14 days. Worse places to be stuck

Also the Swiss Government have banned all events with more than 1,000 people so all football games are off. They may have to finish the season with all games being played behind closed doors.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/28/no-guarantee-liverpool-would-crowned-premier-league-champions/ There is no guarantee Liverpool would be crowned Premier League champions if the season was curtailed by the coronavirus, Telegraph Sport can reveal. There is also no guarantee the bottom three clubs would not be relegated, with no specific regulation in place governing such a scenario. The rapid spread of the virus has raised the prospect of the Government ordering the cancellation of all sporting events in the UK for more than two months, something that could mean some fixtures never being played. Were the Premier League season not completed, it is likely crisis talks would take place to determine whether previous results would be allowed to stand or whether the entire campaign was rendered null and void. Any final ruling could depend on how many fixtures had been played, similar to the results of abandoned matches in some sporting competitions being allowed to stand if a certain percentage of them have been completed. Depriving Liverpool of their first Premier League title given they are 22 points clear at the top and need only four more wins to be crowned champions would be hugely controversial. But it would be equally controversial to relegate the bottom three if they are not already doomed when a halt is called to the season given the hundreds of millions of pounds at stake. The same would apply to European qualification places and also promotion spots in the Championship, which also has play-offs for the final Premier League place.

I think people are very complacent because SARS and bird flu didn’t affect us. The difference between this and SARS is it is much more infectious and has a long incubation period. This means clusters can suddenly break out almost from nowhere like has happened in Korea and Italy. 10 towns in Italy have been put on lock down today. The good news is it is not very deadly and many people only get mild symptoms but it could still kill 10s of thousands in the UK and put huge pressure on the NHS

The Italians cancelled all games in Lombardy and Veneto regions today including Inter vs Sampdoria to try and contain an outbreak of Coronavirus. Unfortunately, it looks like the efforts to contain this virus globally have failed and it is only a matter of time until we get a major outbreak here. I suspect we could also see games being cancelled to try and contain any outbreak here. This could be a big issue for the football authorities (as well as the NHS of course and the Government). If the season isn’t cancelled, I could see games being held behind closed doors.

My old man supports Cardiff (yes I know) and says that he would happily drive Flint back to Bristol as he has been making some howlers lately. On the other hand, Lee Tomlin (remember him) is supposed to be playing quite well for them but not always getting picked.

Job for Osman?

Back in the 90s there was a period where the gap between the Prem and the Championship was huge and the 3 sides who went up would invariably come straight back down. Since then the Championship has closed that gap and now there isn't a huge difference in quality between the top half of the Championship and the bottom half of the Premiership. As a result a gap has now started to open up between the Championship and League One, and it is more common to see yo-yo teams like Rotherham. If you look at attendances that shows a pattern. Leeds have a higher average attendance so far than half the premiership clubs and even City have a higher attendance than 3 Premiership teams. By contrast only 4 League One teams have a higher attendance than the lowest Championship club (Luton). Really only Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth could make a case they deserve to be in the Championship at the moment. A lot of clubs in that division have either seen better days (Coventry, Bolton) or are going nowhere (Rovers, Gillingham) plus a few clubs like Accrington and Fleetwood for whom it's probably as good as it gets. I don't agree we won't go back there every again. Ipswich have shown that if you don't invest you can slip down the league, while Prem clubs being relegated twice is becoming more common for those who invest badly.

Why would a South American gold miner want to buy Bury? Unfortunately, it is too late now and the only way back is via a phoenix club.

You will never get government intervention. FIFA hates it when governments try to interfere with football affairs. If anyone is going to intervene it would have to be the FA...

Time's up. Guess we wait for the EFL to pronounce judgement

Sad news about Bury.

Leyton Orient are another one who have found life tough in the shadow of bigger teams. Teams like Yeovil and FGR are small clubs but they don't particularly have any local competition. Our own relative success vs Rovers has seen us grow our combine share of local fans. If you think at one point it was nearer 50/50 and it is now 75% City, 25% Rovers

Bolton also now given a deadline of 5pm Tuesday as their takeover is taking too long.

Sorry left 2 clubs out: L2 South (24 clubs) - Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay, Yeovil, Swindon, Newport, FGR, Cheltenham, Eastleigh, Aldershot, Maidenhead, Woking, Crawley, Dover, Barnet, Boreham Wood, Bromley, Dagenham , Ebbsfleet, Sutton, Orient, Colchester, Stevenage, Cambridge L2 North (24 clubs) - Carlisle, Barrow, Morecambe, Fylde, Chorley, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Macclesfield, Crewe, Wrexham, Hartlepool, Bradford, Halifax, Harrogate, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Mansfield, Chesterfield, Notts County, Port Vale, Walsall, Solihull, Northampton