Matt Maher: Football needs to plan ahead of new lockdown threat
One wonders whether, during the celebrations which followed Villa securing survival on Sunday, any toasts of thanks were raised to Richard Masters and the rest of the Premier League board?
After all, had it not been for the work of CEO Masters and his colleagues in developing the measures and protocols under which the league could restart last month, Dean Smith and his players would never have got the chance to pull off their remarkable escape.
For the duration of football’s three-month shutdown, Villa were in limbo, relegated under every mathematical or scientific model produced in the event the season did not resume.
They are not the only club now thoroughly grateful it did. Much further up the table, Manchester United claimed a top four finish and the return to the Champions League the pandemic threatened to deny them. Tottenham’s strong finish earned them a spot in the Europa League.
Down in the Championship, meanwhile, there was even more movement. Of the three teams sitting in the bottom three during the shutdown, only Charlton Athletic were relegated. Cardiff and Swansea fought their way up into the play-offs from ninth and 11th sport respectively.
All of which is little consolation to those clubs in Leagues One and Two, most notably Tranmere and Stevenage, who never got the chance to determine their own destiny as both divisions were decided on a points-per-game basis.
That followed a vote where clubs had the benefit of knowing exactly what the outcome would mean.
Yet at some point in the next few weeks, as the final schedule for the swiftly-approaching 2020/21 season is worked out (it could be the second half of August before the fixture list is actually announced), someone will have to raise the awkward question of what should happen if a rise in infections causes next season to be halted at any stage?
While no-one is suggesting that will be the case, neither can it be entirely ruled out. The Premier League and Championship completing their seasons was in many ways an impressive achievement, yet it was still done under highly-controlled conditions and we are still a long way from normality.
It will be interesting how many clubs might be willing to vote for a points-per-game model when there is no way of determining what the impact might mean for themselves? An educated guess at the answer to that question would be not very many at all.
