West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady has cast major doubt over the remainder of the campaign, and in turn Liverpool’s title, following the decision to postpone all fixtures to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
Football world hit hard
The worldwide COVID-19 (more commonly referred to as coronavirus) outbreak has of course been headline news across the globe of late.
The latest figures, as of this afternoon, suggest that over 150,000 people have now tested positive for the virus worldwide, resulting in almost 6000 deaths.
The scale of the pandemic has therefore inevitably also had a major effect on the football calendar.
After the likes of Serie A, La Liga and the Champions League were brought to a complete halt earlier this week, the Premier League finally followed suit yesterday morning.
On the back of confirmation that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had contracted COVID-19, it was subsequently announced that professional football across all tiers in England had been postponed until the 3rd of April.
The Premier League, FA, EFL and WSL have collectively agreed to postpone the professional game in England
Full statement: https://t.co/XcDyzBp4Ol pic.twitter.com/cmYjoY3LRR
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 13, 2020
‘The only fair and reasonable thing to do’
Many, however, feel as though there has thus far been little evidence to suggest that football will actually receive the green light to resume in 3 weeks’ time, or even over the months to come.
And, as outlined above, one such individual is Karren Brady.
Writing in a column for the Sun earlier today, West Ham vice-chairman Brady revealed her opinion that a return to action on April 3rd should be considered ‘dreamland’, before suggesting that the only fair solution is to declare the season ‘null and void’.
This would, of course, see runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool miss out on the English top-flight title:
‘No escaping the fact now, football in England is entering its most devastating period in 75 years.’
‘There is no dodging the possibility that all levels in the EFL, as well as the Premier League, will have to be cancelled and this season declared null and void because if the players can’t play the games can’t go ahead.’
‘The PL hopes that an interlude of three weeks from today will enable it to restart but that may well be dreamland.’
‘So what if the league cannot be finished? As games in both the PL and in the EFL are affected, the only fair and reasonable thing to do is declare the whole season null and void.’
‘Who knows who would have gone down or come up if the games have not actually been played in full?’
‘A huge blow to Liverpool who might be robbed of their first title in 30 years.’
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