What if they shut down the season?

[Dick Dastardly]

25 minutes ago, East Kent Jag II said:

There is a case for claiming chopping half of the leagues playing cuts on the number of essential journeys.  However the same SG said  at the start  of this pandemic that they wanted elite  sport to continue for the welfare of local communities.

The original reason for the SFA/SPFL to offer the lower leagues' heads on a platter a la John the Baptist  was because the clubs didn't test.  It was also mooted that lower league clubs, being part time, presented "more of a risk" (NO evidence provided.)  Mentioning St John, the club bearing his name continue playing. Part time teams continue playing.

Lower league clubs said they will test, but the goalposts keep moving.  If the SG feel that they want to cut down on essential travel, ALL football, international rugby et al must be shut down, without the rubbish about bubbles being bandied about.  Celtic went to Dubai, and players tested positive on their return.

 

Forget about logic. 
The SFA/SPFL had to be seen to be doing something following the shambles of Dubai and other high profile protocol breaches. What they have done by stopping the lower leagues does not impact on 90% of supporters or 52.3% of clubs, yet it does get them headlines to show they are playing their part and invites to appear on the media.

There is no motivation for them to relax the postponement until the SG relax their lockdown, or any pressure on them to postpone any other leagues.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Dick Dastardly

[East Kent Jag II]

9 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Forget about logic. 
The SFA/SPFL had to be seen to be doing something following the shambles of Dubai and other high profile protocol breaches. What they have done by stopping the lower leagues does not impact on 90% of supporters or 52.3% of clubs, yet it does get them headlines to show they are playing their part and invites to appear on the media.

There is no motivation for them to relax the postponement until the SG relax their lockdown, or any pressure on them to postpone any other leagues.

The basis of the science is logic.  The empirical approach of experiment, observation, hypothesis, prediction deduction etc is all based on logical deductions on what you find by experiment. What you are outlining is media spin.  The lower league clubs conducting testing, and putting pressure on the football authorities to return should provide the motivation for change.   Nobody has commented on the volte face  by the SC on elite sport's role in the community.  Either you have elite clubs supporting their communities, or you don't.  I'm fast coming to the conclusion that the only logical conclusion  is for all sport to stop.  The longer this goes on, the less likely we are to restart.  It's galling for me, in an area where there is a much higher cases per 100k of the population than anywhere in Scotland, and local non-EPL clubs such as Dover Athletic can play, but we are willing to test, and can't.  (Dover do test.)

Shut the whole thing down, and if that buggers up Doncaster's plans, sod him.

[Dick Dastardly]

You said it. This is media spin. It costs little, impacts relatively few, but looks good.

[Jaggernaut]

6 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

You said it. This is media spin. It costs little, impacts relatively few, but looks good.

And they might think that with some "luck," they can kill off some of those pesky wee part-time teams in the lower leagues and replace them with colts from the big SPFL teams. 

[Garscube Road End 2]

1 hour ago, Jaggernaut said:

And they might think that with some "luck," they can kill off some of those pesky wee part-time teams in the lower leagues and replace them with colts from the big SPFL teams. 

Yep. The bigger picture for those scumbags at SPFL.

[One t in Scotland]

Alloa and Brechin bottom of their leagues.

Forget the season restarting.

Edited January 30, 2021 by One t in Scotland

[Auld Jag]

2 hours ago, Jaggernaut said:

And they might think that with some "luck," they can kill off some of those pesky wee part-time teams in the lower leagues and replace them with colts from the bigot brothers.

FTFY.

[fenski]

I agree that lower leagues are being unfairly treated, however is it not a bit moot given weather and state of the pitch? I reckon most if not all of our home games would've been postponed.

[Garscube Road End 2]

9 hours ago, fenski said:

I agree that lower leagues are being unfairly treated, however is it not a bit moot given weather and state of the pitch? I reckon most if not all of our home games would've been postponed.

That is a very good point. Probably done the club a favour as they were running scared of Clyde.

[fenski]

It does - it means players can be furloughed while unable to play.

[gianlucatoni]

there's a looming election ... the SG were never going to p*ss off the blue & green filth hordes by shutting down 'elite' sport - the bigoted fan/vote base is too widespread across the country - we're just collateral - our community doesn't matter.

Edited February 1, 2021 by gianlucatoni

[Auld Jag]

An article from the Sun on pie and bovril saying lower league clubs expect to get the green light next season for the season to restart early March. Games will be played Tuesday, Saturday to complete the season by Mid May or June if required. Play offs would also go ahead.

[gianlucatoni]

48 minutes ago, Auld Jag said:

An article from the Sun on pie and bovril saying lower league clubs expect to get the green light next season for the season to restart early March. Games will be played Tuesday, Saturday to complete the season by Mid May or June if required. Play offs would also go ahead.

I have my doubts

[Auld Jag]

9 minutes ago, gianlucatoni said:

I have my doubts

So do i. Although a small amount might be allowed back to schools, mostly primary in a couple of weeks time nothing else is to change until the end of February at earliest. So why would our leagues be allowed back.

[Dick Dastardly]

An article from the Sun on pie & bovril. How can anyone doubt the authenticity ?

I said weeks ago and still believe, there will be no possibility of discussing restarting while the bulk of the country is in tier 4

[jlsarmy]

1 hour ago, Dick Dastardly said:

An article from the Sun on pie & bovril. How can anyone doubt the authenticity ?

I said weeks ago and still believe, there will be no possibility of discussing restarting while the bulk of the country is in tier 4

Think it’s the only chance of completing our season if we start playing at the start of March, if we don’t start then they’re is no chance of our Season being finished as our League has got to be synched roughly at the same time as the Championship for the play off places.

Got my doubts 

[gianlucatoni]

3 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

So do i. Although a small amount might be allowed back to schools, mostly primary in a couple of weeks time nothing else is to change until the end of February at earliest. So why would our leagues be allowed back.

Exactly my thinking too ... three weeks notice for early years to start back on Feb 22nd ... review around 16th Feb to decide next phase (later years of primary?) with similar 3 weeks notice would take us into early March ... Jason Leitch admitted/let slip last week that it wasn’t as simple as getting older pupils in secondary due to their ability to be infected so any March announcement with a similar 3 week lag would see us up to Easter holidays ... schools back proper on 19th April?

Just cannot see lower leagues being allowed by SG to operate in a situation where schools are not open fully and probably when we are still effectively held in level 4 conditions.

At least if it goes beyond 5th April then another £312 can be claimed back from the HMRC for use of a home office 

[redandyellowallover]

9 hours ago, gianlucatoni said:

Exactly my thinking too ... three weeks notice for early years to start back on Feb 22nd ... review around 16th Feb to decide next phase (later years of primary?) with similar 3 weeks notice would take us into early March ... Jason Leitch admitted/let slip last week that it wasn’t as simple as getting older pupils in secondary due to their ability to be infected so any March announcement with a similar 3 week lag would see us up to Easter holidays ... schools back proper on 19th April?

Just cannot see lower leagues being allowed by SG to operate in a situation where schools are not open fully and probably when we are still effectively held in level 4 conditions.

At least if it goes beyond 5th April then another £312 can be claimed back from the HMRC for use of a home office 

I can understand your line of thinking but it's your point completely moot due to the Championship and Premier League still playing?  It's clear that elite sport is being allowed to operate outwith the constraints that are affecting everything else. The SG haven't at any point stipulated that any football has to stop so why the insistence that the lower leagues not starting is tied to Schools or tiers/levels is a bit of a mystery to me.

We may not be allowed to return to playing by the SFA/SPFL but the clubs certainly seem pretty confident about it. That alone makes me think they must have had encouraging signs from the SFA that a re-start is probable.

 

[Dick Dastardly]

There is a huge difference in the message given between continuing the Premier/Championship and restarting Leagues 1/2. 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

26 minutes ago, redandyellowallover said:

We may not be allowed to return to playing by the SFA/SPFL but the clubs certainly seem pretty confident about it. That alone makes me think they must have had encouraging signs from the SFA that a re-start is probable.

Something doesn't look right when you consider that the schools are not 100% certain of a full return by a date near coinciding with when lower league football clubs are anticipating  resumption. If anything resumption of training sometime around or just after schools fully re-opening may not look too amiss. There was also some indication at the closedown that the SFA and SPFL might not be singing from the same hymn sheet.   

[redandyellowallover]

49 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Something doesn't look right when you consider that the schools are not 100% certain of a full return by a date near coinciding with when lower league football clubs are anticipating  resumption. If anything resumption of training sometime around or just after schools fully re-opening may not look too amiss. There was also some indication at the closedown that the SFA and SPFL might not be singing from the same hymn sheet.   

Again I don't agree with the correlation between schools and football and that one cannot return without the other.

If the Government had stipulated the shutdown of football and said that it couldn't return until schools did then I could understand it. I know that for many in this thread it seems to be boiling down to a moral decision of whether football should be continuing when other parts of society cannot.

But the reality is that these are not the parameters that the SFA & SPFL are working within.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

3 minutes ago, redandyellowallover said:

Again I don't agree with the correlation between schools and football and that one cannot return without the other.

If the Government had stipulated the shutdown of football and said that it couldn't return until schools did then I could understand it. I know that for many in this thread it seems to be boiling down to a moral decision of whether football should be continuing when other parts of society cannot.

But the reality is that these are not the parameters that the SFA & SPFL are working within.

For clarity I'm not personally arguing for or agin either resumption of leagues or the timing.  What I'm trying to say is whilst it's easy to shut down activities with all the intention of a set return date  it's more difficult to justify to the world at large the restart on that date.

I wouldn't argue with others when they state that the ruling bodies in Scottish football are anything from more to completely interested in the top two divisions. Nor argue that interest is TV revenue driven.  The SFA/SPFL may not be working within the same parameters as the Scottish Government but that's academic if there's not an overwhelming groundswell of opinion within the former in favour of a resumption. I'm even far from certain, despite comments to the contrary, that there's anything near total agreement amongst the lower league clubs. 

[redandyellowallover]

13 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

For clarity I'm not personally arguing for or agin either resumption of leagues or the timing.  What I'm trying to say is whilst it's easy to shut down activities with all the intention of a set return date  it's more difficult to justify to the world at large the restart on that date.

I wouldn't argue with others when they state that the ruling bodies in Scottish football are anything from more to completely interested in the top two divisions. Nor argue that interest is TV revenue driven.  The SFA/SPFL may not be working within the same parameters as the Scottish Government but that's academic if there's not an overwhelming groundswell of opinion within the former in favour of a resumption. I'm even far from certain, despite comments to the contrary, that there's anything near total agreement amongst the lower league clubs. 

Fair enough 

Hopefully we get some positive news next week and we can look forward to watching Thistle again and get back to discussing the team's performance instead of lockdowns and tiers 

[JAG1970]

Some brighter news today.. falling hospital admissions over the last few days, 4.9% infection rate is first time it's been below 5% in a month, and record number of vaccinations in each of the last 3 days..  maybe we're in the process of finally turning the corner and heading towards whatever the 'new normal' may look like...   although I suspect dropping 3 points here and there will still be normal 

[redandyellowallover]

50 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

Some brighter news today.. falling hospital admissions over the last few days, 4.9% infection rate is first time it's been below 5% in a month, and record number of vaccinations in each of the last 3 days..  maybe we're in the process of finally turning the corner and heading towards whatever the 'new normal' may look like...   although I suspect dropping 3 points here and there will still be normal 

Yeah, the number of cases have been steadily dropping for a while now. Weekly totals have been dropping around 22% for the last couple of weeks and should that continue we should be seeing case numbers hover around the 500 mark in a couple of weeks time.

Hospital numbers, as you say, have started to drop and these numbers will lag behind the cases by a week or so. This should mean that these will continue to drop for a while yet.

Couple this with a daily vaccination rate of circa 40k people per day (the SG are aiming to increase this to 60k per day) and things are certainly looking a lot better. I really think that come the end February things will be looking a whole lot different.

Nicola Sturgeon even indicated in parliament on Tuesday that she was hoping to look at easing restrictions slightly at the beginning of March should the trends continue as they are.