Celtic & Coronavirus and competitions!

I think football in Scotland is treated with a certain level of disdain by politicians across the spectrum, rather than just the SNP. You could probably go a step further and say it’s quite unfashionable across society, despite being the most popular sport in Scotland by miles. It’s seen as working class, which in itself isn’t really seen as ‘cool’ just now. Rugby on the other hands, which ironically is still mainly a game played by a small selection of private schoolboys (the borders area being the exception here) is seen as much more socially acceptable.

In terms of Covid, I don’t think it will be an extinction event for football here, but I do think a number of clubs will go under, and the game will be changed dramatically. That’s equally applicable to many leagues across Europe. Sadly, the Premiership is well positioned to not only survive, but capitalise on this, given that ticket sales make up a much smaller proportion of their overall revenue.

Should the government intervene? Yes, for me. They’ve already tried to help local businesses so a football club shouldn’t be any different. I would actually argue that they’re much more important to local communities than the vast majority of small businesses.

The difficulty comes in how reluctant footballers across the board have been to take a sizeable and public pay-cut. Members of the public who aren’t football fans might not mind their taxes going towards keeping an Inverness Caley player employed on £500 per week, but they might find it much more difficult to accept subsidising Gareth Bale earning £600k per week. Until football players are willing to step up and do their bit, I wouldn’t blame the government for being reluctant to do anything. That would unfortunately spell the end of a lot of smaller clubs across the UK, and possibly danger for some of the bigger ones too.

 

It could be good for Scottish football in the long run, provided our top clubs remain relatively healthy.

A country with a population of 5.4 million should have far fewer than 42 senior clubs. If we can cut a whole host clubs from our senior set-up, and perhaps establish a closed league system, it would greatly benefit our national game, in my opinion.

For the avoidance of doubt, I hope that all of our clubs survive, but I suspect that little would change for clubs with average attendances in the low hundreds if they had to restart in an * league tomorrow: I assume that all of their players earn their primary income outside of football, and that they would wish to continue playing football at that level.

The biggest danger is to our medium-sized clubs, and clubs that have mismanaged their finances.

 

The smaller clubs came out at the beginning of this and pretty much said they could survive as long as they aren't expecting to play games and just ride it out. Keeping on a groundskeeper or 2 would be all that would take for most as the rest of the staff in these types of clubs do it out of love of the game and their club.

As you say it is the mid-level clubs that have some level of professional staff that are most at danger along with those who have been spending beyond their means.

 

This.

It’s crazy how many teams we have in the top 4 divisions. The number of teams in the central belt is just stupid.

 

Elite sport should NOT be getting supported... lower level clubs below the EPL trough of money and 350k a week players on the bench however should be judged on their merits, in Scotland I believe there are many deserving cases for help and support, particularly when we look at what other industries and sectors that are being propped up are getting, incidentally by money from the government which they borrow and get printed from the central banking system (as per usual the real winners in this whole * show)

 

If the worse happened and 20 clubs went to the wall then maybe some of these clubs would get together and amalgamate and have a Lanarkshire United añd even a Dundee city .
Think that's the only way forward if these clubs went to the wall .

 

I bet all the clubs would just start again at the bottom in a year's time.

 

It makes sense on paper, just on a population vs the number of teams in our country, but honestly how many fans of the dead/merged teams would really go and support the new ones, their teams mean just as much to them as celtic does to us, these new teams would have a hard time keeping themselves going. How many of us would go watch a glasgow united if the worst happened, not many I'd guess in the short term, it'd take years for some to accept it, and some never would.

 

That hun * Durham actually made a good point on talkSPORT. Hundreds of us can pile into a pub for hours to watch a game without a face mask breathing the same air, but a few thousand can’t be allowed into an outdoor stadium with a mask on. Makes no sense at all.

 

That’s the Dutch now Reversed the decision to allow fans in grounds. No fans allowed in now. Not a chance any supporters are getting in this year over here

 

There's going to be a lot of people wanting season ticket refunds, the longer this goes on.

 

I suspect the Sarajevo game being put on the pass is a clue that they know they will be under scrutiny from many fans on how they handle this, one poster last week said 4 in his family travel from Ireland with books, that's way over 2k the guy has shelled out to watch streams...

If the season as I suspect goes into the new year without fans then the club will be * themselves at the repercussions

 

Exactly. I currently think the same as you, I don't see fans being back in stadiums en masse, before 2021.

 

If fans aren’t in this season in the U.K at all, how the * are clubs selling ST‘s for next year without any concrete plan of a return for fans.

I know we don’t even know if we will make it through this season but if we did say.

 

I personally don't think this season will even end let alone fans....don't want to get bogged down to much on the whole issue of Covid but in terms of football one absurd rule that was made this week in England regarding non league and fans rubber stamped for me something far more sinister is at play than preventing any virus

 

Do you reckon mate, I think most will try and support the club if they can.

 

Celtic changed the Ts and C's this season so no refunds will be paid out for games missed. Everyone knew they risk they were taking on by renewing this summer.

I still think we'll be back in this season.

 

Most Bundesliga clubs including Dortmund who have more season tickets than us did not sell them for this season with an option to sell half season ones if fans are back...in hindsight that looks a more sensible option.

 

I think a number of people will aye, based on what happened at the end of last season. I'm sure some will want to support the club, but I wouldn't blame or judge anyone for asking for a refund if they don't get what they paid for. Either way, whatever they do is their own business and I hope folk don't start bickering over it trying to play a game of Top Trump Celtic Supporter because they didn't ask for a refund.

 

I agree with every part of that but not all 53k will and we have to respect that