[jjamez]

I more bothered if they make us play at neutral venues. Sure avoiding being at Millwall on the last day is good in terms of intimidation, but we had Wigan and Luton at home and to lose the crowd factor is a big thing for us, well for any club really

[theo_luddite]

Doesn't matter if it's neutral (whatever that means) or not. No fans means no atmosphere, normally intimidating or not, so whether it's played at The McGalphsmiths, the Canalside training grounds, Doncaster/Bradford/Sheffield/L666s or St. Georges park, not even one man and his dog will get to see it in the flesh. It will be a case of who's bench can make most noise for atmosphere and how loud Oggy and Matt Glennon can be shouting to each other across the pitch. Well, they'll need a few volunteer ball boys as well as common tater's surely? Someone will have to retrieve the odd ball lumped into the canal. Glennon is cut-out for that job.

[Marco4]

Is there no concern at all the by playing games, any games, behind closed doors, suddenly a whole world of opportunity arises.

How long ago was it that the Premier League was mooting Game 39 somewhere else in the world? With the option of games that local fans can't attend but have to use a different method of watching, then that method is always available in future.

"Yes, this round is in the USA; we'll be using the same beamback technology as we did in the BCD games last year, so fans won't miss any more games than they did then"

Once something is legitimised, it becomes possible a second time, even if the first time is due to outlandish circumstances.

[Lord Snooty]

A bit of good news. Former Town player Adam Clayton has tweeted that his dad is out of ICU after 51 days, most of those days on a ventilator.

[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town Chairman Phil Hodgkinson is happy to complete the current 2019/20 campaign - but believes there are much bigger issues that the EFL and that football should be discussing.

Danny Cowley’s First Team squad will return to training on Monday (25 May 2020) ahead of a proposed completion to the current season, which will be played behind-closed-doors.

Town’s Chairman explained that he agrees with the EFL’s framework to complete the campaign, but believes there is a far more important issue that needs solving now.

“The season should be completed when it’s safe to do so and there should be relegation and promotion.

“Everyone has worked hard; we are three quarters of the way through the season.

“We are on board with that, but there’s a much bigger issue that needs to be discussed in tandem with that.”

The bigger issue is the future of football, not just the Sky Bet Championship, but all the way up and down the football pyramid.

With the uncertainty regarding revenue clubs will receive, the potential of playing games behind-closed-doors, and the huge outgoings that all football clubs have, there’s an increasing concern that football clubs may not make it through the COVID-19 situation.

“We are in the middle of a pandemic. The Government have confirmed categorically that there will be no crowds at sporting events until such a time where there is a vaccine; that’s looking like it could be 2021,” detailed Hodgkinson.

“What that means for football, at every level, is that there will be no match day revenue, no income coming through. It’s very unlikely that there will be much through sponsors, advertising, season ticket sales, corporate hospitality, everything. Football will be without income other than broadcast income.

“As we’ve all been reading for the last few weeks, the broadcaster are very much invoking clauses that relate to displacement of games and looking to claw back hundreds of millions of pounds this season, and probably next as that won’t start on time either; that’s going to have a significant affect all the way down the football pyramid.

“For me, it’s all well and good talking about finishing the season, which is great because everyone wants that to happen, but you can’t agree to finish the season in these circumstances until there has been discussion, dialogue and agreement on how the football pyramid can survive a prolonged period without any revenue at all. For me, that’s a much more important discussion and agreement, which needs to take place than the completion of the season – it needs to happen in tandem.”

Town’s Chairman continued:

We are being asked to fund costs to cover the season, testing and other additional things, which is absolutely fine – I have no issue with that at all! But there are clubs further down the pyramid, who aren’t in the same situation as us, being asked to do the same thing, but there’s no solution in place to tell them whether that extra expenditure will take them further down the road to going out of business; that’s the reality of it.

“What I’m saying is that we need to have that dialogue and come to those conclusions now, at the same time we are discussing completing the season. Football without the revenue will not have the pyramid and football needs the pyramid.

“Let’s not pretend that football didn’t cause this problem, it did. Football has created the position we are in. What we have now is the opportunity, with this COVID-19 pandemic, is to get football back into a place where it’s run better. Football has caused this problem and football should fix it. If this isn’t solved, you could be looking at 40, 50, 60 clubs in the pyramid ceasing to trade within the next six to 12 months; that’s how big this problem is.”

Hodgkinson raised his concerns to the EFL, but they have yet to be acted upon.

“I’m astounded… I wrote a letter to the EFL a week ago, to the EFL Executive who is dealing with this, asking for this to be discussed along with our ongoing discussions about completing the season. I’m really disappointed that I haven’t received a reply.

“We’ve distributed that letter to every football Chairman in the EFL pyramid and have had positive feedback and so on, but someone needs to pick this up.”

The longer the wait for discussions regarding the upcoming season, the greater Hodgkinson’s worries grow about the future of the game.

“The authorities need to address this now. There needs to be an acceptance that football has created this situation and football needs to get itself out of it. We’ve got an opportunity of fixing this longer term.

“I genuinely fear, it’s an absolute reality, that if we don’t have those discussion now and agree on how football is going to look after itself during a period with barely any revenue or income, then we’re going to be looking at a situation where we lose more than half the clubs in the pyramid and even more at non-league level. There are clubs that are on the verge and we’re not having the discussions.

“I’m genuinely fearful for football if the authorities don’t get together now with the PFA and the other organisations and put something in place so that football can continue at every level whilst we get through this horrible pandemic we are going through.”

[Lord Snooty]

Town have confirmed that no players or staff have tested positive for the Covids.

[jjamez]

Hodgkinson is right in what he said. Too many clubs have been pounding away at the financial ceiling for far too long. This pandemic is where that ceiling will collapse in on them.

Now will it be 50-60 I don't know, I'd say every club from the Premier league down will feel the effects in one way or another, but there will be some that get buried under the weight.

We will or should be fine. Hurt, but fine. The likes of Southend and Macclesfield for example will go without the proper help, they were on the way when the season could be played normally so now, no chance.

I think we'll see one or more of the more reputable clubs suffer too. I Iook at what lee bowyer said about in one game his whole Charlton side earned less per week than one of the opposition players, this can no longer be allowed to happen for one, but the side who had one player who earned more than another team will surely be one of those that is greatly damaged by this situation.

I look at our league and I fail to see many, if any at all, with a system that is sustainable. Maybe Barnsley and Luton one of whom tries to keep homegrown and another who has reached this division and not over exerted much like us in prem season 1. Otherwise I'm struggling. It's been well said that Leeds need promotion this season to keep their manager and best players and its not just a quality issue. Fulham can't seriously afford to be paying 80k plus to mitrovic alone, whilst they have one of the smallest grounds. Qpr have flaunted ffp for a good few seasons, but are probably lucky they've got eze. Derby are well known for pushing it too, and were being examined (still were I think) as were Wednesday. I'd guess that 5-10 clubs aren't feeling it as much as others, or aren't as worried at least. Us being one.

I feel this is what football needed, and in some ways it could be the refresh it needed, I've seen somewhere that it's was suggested that there could be a slight copy of the American football system after all this where each club selects a few players they want to keep, then the rest enter a draft, with the wage cap in effect too. Sure some players will move abroad due to it, but it's no great deal. If some foreign player leaving helps English football become better both in health and as a product then I'm all for it.

[Lord Snooty]

An unnamed member of staff at Huddersfield Town has tested positive for coronavirus according to the Unexamined.