Where will it end... 12th September as it happens

You clearly have never been to a GP have you? No it's not.

Yes, driving cars round is the main thing.

 

Yes I have been to a GP but I never quite understood the idea. So you're saying that driving round cars at a GP is the main thing? Got it. Cheers.

 

They will be about 2000 people their and social distancing is impossible a part from the drivers in which from the 2000 people only around 22 will driving.
Time for you to switch on pal and find solutions. Let businesses/industries need to try to figure out this virus because if not many will go under.

It's easy to think of the negatives but we need make sure we find solutions

 

You're deluded. A GP takes place over days in terms of the prep and execution, and over an expanse of space that equates to a small village. You can very easily keep people 2m apart. On race days the drivers are a non issue. They clearly aren't close together. the pit crews are suited up anyway and only come into distance within 2m for a few seconds whenever the cars pit. It'd be one of the easiest sports to organize a behind closed doors type approach.

But that's how your mind works isn't it? GP can do it, so can the football. A bit like - disinfectant kills the virus on worktops, it'll work in the lungs too.

 

I think I saw the stats, that if a Prem game got played behind closed doors, it still takes approx 300 people involved. That's the players, backroom staff, ground staff, tv staff (if it's gonna be filmed for us at home) and all the others that make up the bare minimum for it to happen. Now having watched GP on tv, I'd say that it looks like each bloody race team has 300 people in it, so God knows how many people would actually be involved on race day.

 

Miami blood antibody study gives 0.2% death rate - the upper range of an average flu but 16 times more people had it than thought.

Https://reason.com/2020/04/26/miami-dade-antibody-tests-suggests-covid-19-infections-exceed-confirmed-cases-by-a-factor-of-16/</font>

 

The vast majoirty of those are hangers on. You have a tech team, who don't need to be anywhere near the race. Pit crew of around 20, but all suited and helmeted. Easy enough to social distance between pit stops. Behind closed doors means no commercial or merchandising etc. You'd obviously still have the media and support crews, but again - if you've ever been to a GP, they're huge. Easy enough to keep people and teams separate.

Every sport is different. The idea that one sport is being restarted means another can do the same is ridiculous and without context. Football is a contact sport and even if you can keep the support folks distanced, at its core, you have 22 players who're coming into close physical contact for 90 minutes.

 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/27/project-restart-12614208/

Look at some of the conditions around which a restart is being driven. No holding at corners or set pieces - good look with that.
Players not kissing or having sex with partners who display symptoms - forgetting that fact that for many, its an asymptomatic disease.

Completely unworkable. And what happens as soon as someone becomes infected, which is bound to happen. The idea of a 'festival of football' over a short space of time will become impossible. Its nonsensical. I'd love to be able to watch a few games whilst this is all going on, but the logistics aren't grounded in reality. Its desperation. And there's no way you can implement it for the lower leagues at all. Unless our season is parked until much later this year, its done.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8257259/Bundesliga-bosses-outline-blueprint-footballs-return-9.html

Just look at the list of conditions and how prone to failure it is.

'Private conversations must be avoided to maintain distancing, with whispering to be avoided.'

'Teams should either have their own hotel or have their own floor, with their own entrance and elevator, to avoid contact with other hotel visitors and maintaining two-metre distancing between each other.'

Players will press lift buttons with their elbows, but will not be able to use the bar or room service.

They are also to wear masks outside their own room with no cleaning of the rooms to take place while the team is in the hotel.

Players will be instructed to stay inside as much as possible, receive few visitors, and also avoid crowds if they go out with no use of public transport whilst maintaining two-metre distancing.

They must keep a record of family members and their safety record.

They will also be told to avoid kissing or sex with partners who are showing symptoms and to not share toothbrushes, towels, dishes, drinks or bed sheets.

We've seen in this country a number of players not even able to abide by the basic lockdown instructions. The whole thing, if its tried, will be a farce. And that's before you factor in the demand and reliance on testing.

 

I was totally taken in, until I saw the source

 

Shut Bantam Talk down. @Faithful Bantam cant figure out how football returns.

12/18 months when vaccine is found then bring it back.

 

I can figure out how it won't return. As can anyone with a degree of common sense. Which might leave you stumped.

 

No what's making you stumped is you can't seem to get that industries will have to try to figure away round this virus to operate.

Finding negatives is easy.. finding solutions which you seem to struggle at is what it's about now.

Ideas in all industries will be floating about. I don't think the supermarket keep 2m works in the long run but it's all going to be about trying things out and altering.

No going to be a perfect solution!

What don't want is people like you for the next 12/18 not encouraging people to do sport or anything your brain can't find a solution for. It's bad enough the country is going to stuffer economically and people will lose their jobs, let's add fat children/adults to the mix also.

The challenges football faces now will be the same until a vaccine is found. So, next season doesn't happen if we can't get round the issues we face today.

 

There's an irony to your post Fordy. I absolutely understand the need to adapt, to innovate, to make tough decisions. Which is why I've previously posted the specifics of how I'd go about it. None of which include having no football for 12/18 months, and I have no idea why you're talking about fat kids. I've also posted about how i'd go about re-opening the country for business to incorporate some of that innovation. But you offer nothing specific beyond 'lets get creative'. You've offered no practical solutions at any step, you just make noise.

 

You guys are still debating the wrong thing. You should be debating testing results. Swab test numbers are not community infection rates and they give misleading death rates. About 15 small blood studies that have preliminary results are showing vast numbers of missed symptomless infections and death rates of 0.1% to 1.0%, with most studies at the lower end. Over 0.5% is probably too dangerous to play football. Under 0.5%, fit young footballers can maybe play with precautions. Under 0.2-0.3% is flu range and they can probably play football with crowds again since that indicates millions infected invisibly across the UK in a fast wave of mild illness (with certain exceptions) and we are well on our way to herd immunity which could be achieved in weeks. Our chief medical officer said recently it is possible that 3% to 10% have already been infected in London. The New York Study said 21% had antibodies so that is the number that would have been infected at the start of April. It might be 30%+ now.

It all spins on community blood test studies which have been sadly lacking so far, though many are under way. Some rich clubs have been blood testing staff and might have an inside line on where we are. Presumably, they would not be taking risks and spending time and money preparing to train and host games and broadcasts if their blood test numbers were bad.

 

You'll need paper and crayons to have that debate with @Fordy117 . I'll leave you to it.

But I agree - understanding the reality of how dangerous this virus actually is, and the inherent risk that we just have to accept in different ways and walks of life, is key to restoring some form of normality. And whilst the data is building, there are still too many unknowns. It takes time to truly understand any new virus and we're still learning. That, along with the time needed to ramp up community testing and serological analysis, the time to build a vaccine and the unworkable suggestions that seem to have a dependency on football being restarted over the next few weeks, mean that the best solution to protect the game for the longer term is to end the season now, plan for a new season and the necessary caveats to begin around Sept, support clubs financially in the meantime etc. Everyone associated with the industry needs to be prepared to take some pain, accept it for what it is, and work to get back to this being a viable, spectator sport with healthy revenues later this year. Trying to chase the impossible now, will cause more damage in the long run.

And by the way, aside from football, similar points stand in all walks of life. For example, tourism and air travel. The extent to which international travel becomes viable again, will be largely driven by a better understanding of the lethality, existing spread and levels of immunity that exist with this virus.

 

Not sure I agree on the last point though. I sense real desperation and a disjointed thinking within the game. I don't think their aspirations or plans are based on a calculated level of risk, they're based on a desperation of what it might mean financially if the season can't be finished. Particularly around TV rights. Look at the massively clunky - and I would say completely unrealistic - conditions for getting the game going again.