Sky Sports pundit tells The Football Show: 'The reality of it is I am a lot less confident of football finishing [the season] than I was five or six weeks ago'
Saturday 18 April 2020 10:10, UK
Gary Neville has admitted he is no longer convinced the current football season will restart as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grip countries around the world.
Premier League clubs met again on Friday to try and agree on a way to end this season.
The clubs remain united in their desire to finish the season, but the controversial proposal of completing the campaign by June 30 was not raised in Friday's meeting.
Yet with lockdown extended for a further three weeks at least and the game's continuing challenges around player contracts, as well as attempting to play behind closed doors, Neville has admitted concerns over a conclusion.
"Where we were five or six weeks ago when we weren't doing shows virtually, I was 99 per cent confident about football being completed this season and I was confident about all competitions, whether it be behind closed doors or in other circumstances," he told The Football Show on Friday.
"That's having been part of the League Two owners' discussions over the last few weeks, seeing the complexities and seeing the challenges that the PFA have got with contracts.
"Also, seeing the issues of starting behind closed doors and then a player gets it again and they have to go into quarantine again and the challenges that exist with fans travelling to potentially Istanbul. Our fans are so loyal they will try and get there somehow.
"The reality of it is I am a lot less confident of football finishing [the season] than I was five or six weeks ago, now we are getting to the crux of the matter and these types of decisions are having to be made."
Joining Neville on The Football Show, fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said hard decisions would need to be taken soon - and warned that "something will have to give'" when a resumption is agreed.
"There have been a lot of 'semi-decisions' to buy time but I think very soon we'll have to make decisions on this season and next season," said Carragher.
"Something's got to give at some stage - maybe a competition this season or next has to be taken out of the calendar to allow space because next season may be a tighter timeframe. Right now, no one has given up anything but eventually we'll need to make decisions and someone will lose out on something."
A concurring Neville added: "I actually get the feeling (the authorities) are stuck; everyone is fending for their own rights. Where are the club owners and CEOs? There's an abyss of information - we're just speculating all the time.
"Football has gone quiet. It would be nice to hear them communicate about the challenges taking place. Even if you don't know the outcomes, you have to communicate."
UEFA is considering proposals which would see the Champions League final being played on August 29, three months later than originally scheduled.
The Champions League final was due to take place at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on May 30 but, under one of the new proposals which UEFA will discuss next week, the final would be moved to Saturday, August 29 at the same venue.
Carragher has backed the idea of an alternative tournament format in August to complete European competition.
"I said something will probably have to give and I've said previously that cup competitions would be more at risk than leagues because when leagues finish obviously impacts on next season," he said.
"I don't think there's any way you can have Champions League games in the middle of leagues starting up in Europe because games will be so spaced together to try and get the season done - over three or four weeks - that it feels like European competition will have to have its own situation.
"With the season moving on a month or two, everything will get pushed back, so when they talk about August, that wouldn't be the start of next season. August would instead feel like the summer in football terms or the end of the season when you might have a tournament. I think that would be a good idea.
"But the longer this goes on and things get pushed back, something has to give. The Euros is next summer we know so you almost have to work back from that.
"Is it the FA Cup or Carabao Cup next season that gets pushed out, and you move the Champions League (conclusion) to August and start next season in September or October? I think the Champions League will be really difficult to fit in in a normal format so a tournament could work really well."
Watch The Football Show every weekday from 9-11am on Sky Sports News and Sky Sports Premier League and get involved using #SkyFootballShow
