I don't find the situation satisfactory but it is remarkable that the PL rules don't seem to have a force majeure clause. I completely agree with you that extending the season will be a nightmare but without a firm legal basis for doing something else there is a lot of uncertainty. I don't think the Premier League can be sued for suspending the competition. They can be taken to arbitration and will be if they make a decision about what happens next that they don't explicitly have the power for. And be as blunt as you like.....makes things clearer!
Leagues must have ended prematurely before. Is there precedent for this or some overall trend? I'd guess that most of the time when it happens there are more important things to worry about and it's not a priority. That's the case now too, of course, but I find it hard to believe that this is a first.
Blackpool were top and weren't awarded the title, which instead went to Liverpool after the league restarted. Seems like precedent, to me.
The reintroduction of professional football after The Great War suggests that Arsenal will end up in the Champions League, at least. Might even be declared champions for 2019/20..? Anyone supporting Spurs who owns a parrot may wish to purchase some additional pet insurance.
As usual, any controversy in football is hijacked by Liverpool and how it affects them. The argument for giving Liverpool the title is the same reason why none of the other issues can be satisfactorily resolved.
Unless you want to spontaneously combust, I'd not recommend reading this article... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...n-absurd-idea-peddled-weaponise-pandemic.html ...although that probably applies to everyone fortunate enough to have avoided reading it until now...
Sadly, I read it earlier. Holt doesn't seem to look much beyond Liverpool in his argument. How can he say Leeds deserve promotion? They bottled it last season and wobbled for half a dozen games earlier this year.
Sky promote Holt like he is the font of footballing wisdom but he simply spouts enfless amounts of ****e ... that article is beyond embarrassing
The only sensible way of doing things is to void the season. A league title has to be based on every team playing the other twice, not to mention promotion and relegation which is actually financially much more significant. There’s an argument that you could play the remainder of games behind closed doors because we don’t normally postpone games if players get ill, but this is clearly not a not a normal circumstance. And pushing the season past normal end points is a no-go for so many reasons.
Rather than asking footballers and people who make their money from football actually being reinstated as if it was the most important activity in the world, this article asks a sports lawyer, who understand the possible issues... https://www.football.london/premier-league/leading-sports-lawyer-makes-bold-17929195 Surprise, surprise he reckons that any considerable delay (a couple of months max) would be likely to result in the season being voided.
He says Villa relegated even though they have played less games and would stay up if they win the game in hand.
I don't recall a recent event like this. What happened 80 years ago doesn't give much of a guide as no money was at stake, only a few matches had been played and the emergency was such that there was no option. This time there are at least three options and some clubs will lose millions depending on which is chosen. It is going to be messy.
Looking at Villa's fixtures though, it does seem the likely outcome, unfortunately. Could've gone down to the wire, as they've got West Ham on the final day, but I think they'd gone before that. Sheffield United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Wolves, Liverpool, Man Utd, Palace, Everton, Arsenal and the Spam. I don't think they'd get a lot from that.
Agreed, they are as good as gone, but you can't relegate them on that basis though. West Ham staying up the year they had Tevez comes to mind. At this stage of the season they looked dead and buried.
Speaking of Villa, they handed the title to Utd in 1993 by losing 1-0 at home to Oldham, who survived relegation having been 8 points behind Crystal Palace with just 3 games left. You can't predict anything in football - very improbable things do happen.
Oldham are currently 19th in the fourth tier. Watch that last step in the Premier League. It can be a really tricky one...