[Updated] Football suspended indefinitely

[Paul6754]

7 hours ago, robf said:

I think each iFollow is linked to the club though. So say we are playing Crewe at home. Vale's income would be the Vale fans who sign up via Vale's iFollow while Crewe's would be the away fans who sign up to their iFollow. Vale would make no income from a healthy "virtual" away following.

So, while Vale would get some extra income from Vale fans watching away games which they wouldn't normally get (e.g. if 5,000+ Vale fans watched each away game that would be a nice windfall) I think the club are right that it won't make up the difference  from an actual matchday income.

That's because more than one fan can watch a single screen and they would only need to pay a tenner to see the game on iFollow (which in itself is a significant drop in the normal ticket income) and there's no other income - food, drink, car parking, shop sales etc

So while during the normal season, iFollow gives a handy bit extra in revenue from fans who can't make the game, unless the iFollow prices are bumped right up, I don't think it's going to be close to the usual matchday income.

Unless the Football League brings in some sort of "pay what you can afford" deal for iFollow. I wonder if that's an option?

These are all eventualities that can be worked out by the EFL/iFollow and the clubs, I anticipate the EFL has some spare cash set aside for a rainy day and this is a rainy day. The main aim is to get the season finished  on the field rather than in an office in London.

[CambridgeDon]

3 hours ago, JRC said:

I like that idea. I have a season subscription but I'd happily donate a match ticket price for each remaining fixture. 

Whether the season gets finished must be very questionable.  There comes a point where they must bite the bullet and move on to next season.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure we can rely on next season either. I listened to the Chief Medical Officer on the briefing today saying that, in the absence of a vaccine or treatment, the only measures left to contain Covid-19 are social ones. He then went on to say that both vaccine and treatment are at least 12 months away. That leads to the inevitable conclusion that social distancing may last for another twelve months.

Perhaps he was being unduly pessimistic (some might say realistic) or trying to manage people's expectations but, either way, it's not looking too good for the future of football (though that's probably the least of our worries).

I saw in the Sentinel as well today that the Chairman of Burton Albion is reported as saying that the EFL believe this as well.

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-port-vale-fans-4068927

 

[Warren]

I think the final league positions could be determined by a points per game approach. It would need a coefficient to adjust for the strength or weakness of the remaining games that would have been played by each club. So if a club has 9 games left against mostly lower table they would get a higher multiplier to their points per game than a club that had 9 games left against mostly upper table clubs. Of course the controversy is in the weight of this multiplier, but perhaps the answer is the weight of the multiplier is related to the proportion of the season / games left in a normal season. The league promotion and play off positions would be decided on reasonable merit but I think relegation out of League 2 should be cancelled. I think this could be used for relegation in the other divisions.

[DistantVale]

38 minutes ago, Warren said:

I think the final league positions could be determined by a points per game approach. It would need a coefficient to adjust for the strength or weakness of the remaining games that would have been played by each club. So if a club has 9 games left against mostly lower table they would get a higher multiplier to their points per game than a club that had 9 games left against mostly upper table clubs. Of course the controversy is in the weight of this multiplier, but perhaps the answer is the weight of the multiplier is related to the proportion of the season / games left in a normal season. The league promotion and play off positions would be decided on reasonable merit but I think relegation out of League 2 should be cancelled. I think this could be used for relegation in the other divisions.

Why would  it need a coefficient , who can say who has the easiest run in and who doesn't,  points per game seems fair enough given that 80 per cent  of the season has passed , safe to say by this time of the season clubs are in their right placing , why are you looking for an algorithm to tamper with it ?   

[Warren]

35 minutes ago, DistantVale said:

Why would  it need a coefficient , who can say who has the easiest run in and who doesn't,  points per game seems fair enough given that 80 per cent  of the season has passed , safe to say by this time of the season clubs are in their right placing , why are you looking for an algorithm to tamper with it ?   

Because it matters. It is clearly not deciding the league on sporting merit otherwise. The coefficient is easy to invent. Just reverse the current league table so that first has the biggest weighting and then add the reversed league position of each team left to play to come to a total and divide by the remaining games to standardize. But then what to do with that relative to the already calculated points per game calculated. That is where controversy lies. However, I think a statistician could sort out an objective combination. 

[Santa]

I think the only fair thing to do is to scrap promotion and relegation. Obviously you'd have to have one team go up from our division to make the numbers up in League One (Swindon) but everybody else can stay as they were.

You'd need a Conference team to come up as well, they can have a scrap between themselves for all I care.

[Wrex]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52418048

Dutch league null and void, no promotion or relegation. As it happens Calvin Mac-Intosch was playing for the side top of the second division, 11 points clear of the play-offs which start in third place.

I will never understand how it's seen as more fair to deny a team a promotion than it is to deny a team in the relegation places a chance to reach safety.

Would you rather see Norwich and Villa in the Premier League next season or Leeds and West Brom? You know there's a 90% chance of Villa and Norwich going down next season, you've seen what they can do and it's nowhere near good enough. Why watch it all over again? Leeds and West Brom might offer something new and surprise a few teams.

[DistantVale]

12 hours ago, DistantVale said:

Why would  it need a coefficient , who can say who has the easiest run in and who doesn't,  points per game seems fair enough given that 80 per cent  of the season has passed , safe to say by this time of the season clubs are in their right placing , why are you looking for an algorithm to tamper with it ?   

 

 

[DistantVale]

11 hours ago, Warren said:

Because it matters. It is clearly not deciding the league on sporting merit otherwise. The coefficient is easy to invent. Just reverse the current league table so that first has the biggest weighting and then add the reversed league position of each team left to play to come to a total and divide by the remaining games to standardize. But then what to do with that relative to the already calculated points per game calculated. That is where controversy lies. However, I think a statistician could sort out an objective combination. 

To be honest, I don't understand from that post what you are actually suggesting should happen,

[Emile]

Id rather they cancel next season 

[PV1973]

If next season does start a bit later I would rather they cancel a cup like the League cup or the Checkatrade, just so that the league games can be squeezed in. 

[Fosse69]

4 minutes ago, Emile said:

Id rather they cancel next season 

Re-start the current season next march is one way out. A financial disaster maybe, but no different to a lot of businesses. 

[The Kalamazoo Kid]

2 hours ago, PV1973 said:

If next season does start a bit later I would rather they cancel a cup like the League cup or the Checkatrade, just so that the league games can be squeezed in. 

I'd rather they cancel those cup competitions permanently - both are a waste of time and have been for a number of years!

[TJHValiant]

Noticed we would have been playing Plymouth in our last game of the season today. Would have been an awesome away day in the sun. 
 

Part of me wants them to carry on the season through the summer, seeing as there is no Euros and I fancy the novelty of some warm weather away days with pints in the sun. 

[MelbourneValiant]

1 hour ago, TJHValiant said:

Noticed we would have been playing Plymouth in our last game of the season today. Would have been an awesome away day in the sun. 
 

Part of me wants them to carry on the season through the summer, seeing as there is no Euros and I fancy the novelty of some warm weather away days with pints in the sun. 

A great opportunity to put to bed the once idea of a summer football season in the UK. I love summer football (World Cup/Pubs/atmosphere), but footy is needed in the dark winters in the UK to get you through.

 

No matter what, I would finish this season first, whenever it resumes, and carry on with the new season whenever possible.  The circumstances are truly bizaare I admit and it isn't as simple as it seems. There will be players out there who should be retiring this week.....what about them?