"Bundesliga will serve as a laboratory... risks must be managed medically and scientifically but jobs and livelihoods at stake."
Monday 11 May 2020 08:21, UK
As Premier League clubs gear up to discuss 'Project Restart' at a crucial meeting on Monday, the Sunday Supplement panel argued in favour of the game returning soon - as safely as possible - for economic and social reasons.
News came on Saturday that two players at German second division side Dynamo Dresden had tested positive for coronavirus, putting on hold the club's planned return to Bundesliga 2 action next weekend, while in the Premier League on Sunday, Brighton chief executive Paul Barber confirmed that a third player had tested positive.
Premier League clubs will meet on Monday to discuss the next steps for 'Project Restart' and while the Sunday Supplement panel acknowledged it will be vital to heed medical advice to protect players and their families, they believe there are compelling arguments for the game to resume.
The panel also discussed an apparent split in the top division, with the bottom six clubs harbouring reservations about proposals to finish the season by playing at neutral grounds, believing that giving up home advantage could affect their chances of staying up.
Andy Dunn - chief sports writer, Daily Mirror: "[The Brighton and Dresden developments] are indicative of the type of hurdles that will have to be surmounted if you want to get football back on.
"Issues are going to come up every day. Whether these hurdles can be surmounted remains to be seen but it seems the Government will do all they can to help the Premier League get the season back on. The will is there.
"My position has changed - and I think your opinion should be allowed to develop. At the start I thought the season should be null and voided; this was something we couldn't foresee.
"I was against football returning in some sort of bio-secure bubble. I was thinking, let's not play until it's safe for fans to come along. It's clear that's not going to be the case for a long time.
"But as time goes on, I've come to think that while I don't agree football will suddenly lift the whole nation - the spirits of the nation will only be lifted the death rate is tumbling, there's more PPE and testing and when there's a vaccine on the horizon. But will football be a welcome distraction, as something to fill a void in people's lives if only for a few hours? Of course this is on the proviso we make it as safe as possible but I think, yes, it would.
"We know many people have been touched by tragedy - hundreds of thousands, soon going into millions. It jars understandably with them that we might be talking about football coming back while this grisly tragedy is unfolding day by day.
"But I don't think by saying that football might be a distraction from the daily gloom that you are being disrespectful to people who have sadly been affected by this tragedy."
Paul Hayward - chief sports writer, Daily Telegraph: "As soon as the Government indicated its desire to get football back on, it was going to get back on.
"I think the Bundesliga will serve as the laboratory for all the technical issues; the Premier League can use the lessons to get their own operations right.
"I think football coming back is a good thing within limits - if the risks can be managed medically and scientifically - but nothing is straightforward.
"The big resumption problem is one of perception; it's about the industry, jobs, livelihoods, raising the spirits of the country but I don't think that message is getting across; people just think it is about money, TV contracts. Some of it is about greed but not all of it.
"The Premier League has to be better at saying that is is also about jobs and livelihoods.
"It's important to remember that this is not just us - horseracing is resuming, the Bundesliga is days away from resuming, La Liga is set to come back in June and Spain had one of the strictest lockdowns.
"It's not just the supposed arrogance of English football; we should see it as an industry-led issue. Football is entitled to ask how it can get going again safely and properly as any other industry. I don't think it should be shamed into thinking that's something dishonourable.
"The difference is, of course, that football is a contact sport and that's something still very hazy in people's minds. When you start thinking about people grappling and shoving, that doesn't sit well.
"Another problem is the idea that football would be taking resources scarce in the NHS but there are details emerging of a privately funded arrangement for the Premier League. You can argue about whether that's ethical or not but if football can persuade the public that it's about picking an industry back up and giving people a distraction, I would be in favour."
Mark Ogden - senior reporter, ESPN: "I agree that football has to come back; industry and society will come back at some point but will carry some degree of risk.
"Life is going to be different; there will be risk involved but there is risk involved in everything. As long as that isn't beyond acceptability, football is a massive industry that generates tax and employs thousands of people.
"I had a conversation with someone at the club the other day who said they were getting 10 WhatsApp messages a day from players asking when they were coming back. The safety of players and their families is key but there are a lot of players who want to come back because it's their livelihood.
"Every kind of industry at the moment is trying to tiptoe its way back and I don't see why football should be any different.
"Football has to be careful it doesn't become the government's punchbag. It will only return when the government says it is safe to do so - it can't do it off its own back."
Hayward: "It's turning slightly into an episode of EastEnders with battles over neutral venues and relegation.
"But I have no problem with clubs defending their interests and not wanting to be steamrollered into a formula that puts them at risk of relegation."
Ogden: "Everyone has to look after their own issues; Watford's issues, for example, are totally different to Liverpool's at the top. Clubs are thinking of safety but beyond that, their futures are at stake."
In an in-depth preview podcast ahead of Monday's Premier League meeting, Sky Sports News' chief reporter Bryan Swanson and reporter Kaveh Solhekol explain where Project Restart - the plan to resume football in England - is up to, what needs to happen before football can return and the hurdles which must still be overcome.
Read an edited version of their explainer or listen to their analysis in full on a special Sky Sports Football podcast.
Download the Sky Sports Football podcast on: Spotify | Apple | Castbox | Spreaker
