Posts tagged “Corona virus”

WITH nobody allowed near a Premier League turnstile and everyone being advised to adopt a simpler, more fulfilling life while they refrain from breathing the same air as their neighbour, non-league football may have a golden opportunity to win more friends and influence for folk. When a magazine like Monocle, a pretentious coffee table monthly (which I have subscribed to for around five years), recommends their readers – in pursuit of a gentler life – adopt their local sports club, then you know something is afoot. Monocle people, generally speaking, are about as far away from football fans as you could possibly be. Wild swimming, shopping for high end goods, sauntering down boulevards and loitering around kiosks and hopping on inter-city flights is more…

Categories: Non-League

Tagged: behind closed doors, Corona virus, covid-19, Non-League, pandemic

Bundesliga deserves our best wishes as the world watches

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on May 10, 2020

SOUTH KOREA and the Faroe Islands started the ball rolling, but the football world will be closely watching how Germany’s Bundesliga fares next weekend. We want it to go well, if only because a setback – and the news of Dynamo Dresden’s isolation is a jolt to confidence – will send FIFA, UEFA and every major football association into mild panic. The people need football back, not because of selfish reasons, but for the morale-boosting effects the game gives to society. If it succeeds, we may start believing that “this too will pass”. But we should not be surprised that Germany feels brave enough to start again. Let’s be clear, the Germans are relatively cautious people, but they live within a system that, by…

Categories: Europe

Tagged: Bundesliga, Corona virus, Coronavirus, Germany, Lead, top slot

Football in the post-virus environment: Old habits disappearing?

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 30, 2020

FOOTBALL’s enforced absence may seem trivial compared to the losses and suffering endured by people at the sharp end of the pandemic, but the crisis has the potential to transform the industry and leave it compromised by a wave of economic destruction. If it was just about the financial damage, then the game undoubtedly has the power, popularity and eco-system to stage a recovery. However, the real cost of the Coronavirus could create a very different game in terms of spectator behaviour and the business models of clubs. People are at their most vulnerable from threat when they are gathered in crowds, making them easy targets for terrorism, aerial attack, bacteria and civil disturbance. Crowds in confined spaces are the worst places to avoid…

Categories: Talking Points

Tagged: Corona virus, infectious disease, Lead, Politics, social media, top slot

Non-League should use coronavirus as a time for reinvention

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 30, 2020

FOOTBALL clubs at all levels are feeling the squeeze at the moment. When you hear that a huge organisation like Barcelona is having financial pressure and their players have taken a pay cut, then you know the game is in a precarious state. Just six weeks without football and some clubs are already staring into the abyss. If the likes of Barcelona are in a mess, then it is no surprise that non-league clubs are facing existential threats at the moment. The concept of provisioning for a rainy day has never been one of football’s priorities and many non-league clubs live day-to-day and basically use up all their spare cash on wages. The wage-to-income ratio of non-league is probably quite frightening. Most people don’t…

Categories: Non-League

Tagged: club finances, club ownership, Corona virus, fan-owned, Lead, Non-League, Stakeholders, top slot

Safe-distance football terracing – a post-virus solution?

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 15, 2020

JUST before the UK government locked down the nation and brought football to a close, I visited Salford City and indulged in something of a rare experience – standing on the terraces at a Football League game. Like many fans, I graduated from the crumbling terraces at my favourite club, Chelsea, and invested increasingly greater sums of money in seated accommodation down the years. By the time most big clubs had gone all-seater, I was happy to be sitting down for 90 minutes. A couple of dodgy knees later, the prospect of standing for an entire game doesn’t appeal to me, although I have to say, I actually enjoy the age-old ritual of leaning against a rusting barrier, craning my neck here and there…

Categories: Talking Points

Tagged: Corona virus, Lead, Premier League, Terraces, top slot

Burnley – keep calm and avoid the tabloids

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 11, 2020

ACCORDING TO some red top papers, Burnley are going to be bankrupt in August. There’s no denying that football at all levels is going to face a financial squeeze in the coming months as revenue streams dry-up, but Burnley’s position is arguably no different than many clubs and indeed better than most. “Football clubs should be bailed out…the government bailed out the bankers in 2008,” said one misinformed person on a radio phone-in. The UK government actually bailed out the economy, not necessarily banks and their employees, for more people lost their jobs in banking than any other industry and banks lay-off thousands of staff each year, most of which goes under the radar. Football clubs are not essential to the economy, no matter…

Categories: English Football

Tagged: Burnley, Corona virus, finance, Lead, Premier League, top slot

Posts tagged “Corona virus”

Non-League football’s time may have arrived

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on September 17, 2020

Bundesliga deserves our best wishes as the world watches

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on May 10, 2020

Non-League should use coronavirus as a time for reinvention

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 30, 2020

Safe-distance football terracing – a post-virus solution?

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 15, 2020

Burnley – keep calm and avoid the tabloids

GOTP Editorial Team

Posted on April 11, 2020