The Sport Thread

I really think the FA Cup is in a unique position as it's at the same stage for all sides, I'd recast it for this season only as an U23 tournament, play it off behind closed doors with TV at Club's practice grounds

Yes, agree it's easy to draw a line in the sand one way or the other but they might as well cancel it as make it under 23 as it still pretty much ends any interest in it. Doesn't help either that the broadcast deal changes after next season so they haven't got much to offer as compensation if it didn't go ahead this year.

Sadly I suspect COVID-19 will be the excuse to axe the replays completely next season, which would also impact on the broadcasting deal and I'd have thought primetime games next season with a crowd would be preferred to games this summer without a crowd, both by fans and broadcasters.

US-focussed, but an opinion piece on SI reckons that closed encampments are a no-goer

The problem with doing away with, or devaluing greatly, the FA Cup for a season is that the clubs that have been most badly affected by the whole thing are the lower league clubs, and the best way for lower league clubs to get the most money the fastest is through the FA Cup.

I think a lot of these suggestions are really overthinking things, to be honest, with endless discussion about who'll show what and how much they'll pay and what they'll do about fans with season tickets. Eventually you're going to just have to write things off, because all parties are in the same boat. There's no point playing a million matches in a day because Sky and BT have played for X matches, there has to be some sort of flexibility about these things from all sides, and I'm sure there will be. It'll hardly do Sky any good if it looks like they're forcing players back, it all has to be a compromise.

Another thing to consider - what happens if next season can't start on time? I really think any league calling it now is jumping the gun. There's every chance that next season can't be completed either, in which case, might as well just get the one already in progress done, however late it is.

Well, indeed, there's no point the broadcasters demanding that every match they've paid for takes place this season if that then means it runs on so long it won't be possible to play the required numbers of matches next season.

It's going to be a question of give or take. I can imagine 2020/21, when it gets underway, being truncated, and it may be that every team just plays each other once and then they invent some play-off system or a Cup to run through until May and then get back on schedule (I think that's what Premiership Rugby are considering for when they return). As long as the structure of the season and the rules are clear at the start of it, there shouldn't be a problem - which is why it makes more sense to me truncating that season than ending this one. The broadcasters won't get as many matches as they expected, but they'll be getting football and given how long it's been, they'll be grateful for that, as will the fans. As long as they're playing it doesn't really matter what the structure of the league is.

I was reading about 1975/76 in Scotland the other day when they restructured the league and it meant the second tier had fourteen teams, and they had to ponder how to do it because playing each other twice would have made too short a season, playing each other four times would have made it too long and playing each other three times would have meant an odd number of home and away matches. In the end they decided everyone would play each other twice, which took them up to March, and then they invented a Cup to pad out the rest of the season. It didn't really work and the next season they changed it so everyone played each other three times, but that was the structure of the season and teams accepted it, and 1975/76 has a champion in the record books without an asterisk saying "But they only played 26 games". As long as there is a structure and everyone knows what it is, that's fine. As long as there's football.

If the format of the 2020/21 season is a bit weird, so be it. Everything's weird.

Out of interest, XFL seem to owe a lot of money to Bexel NEP - $1.2 million!

Also with both football and rugby there are the internationals to consider - more so in rugby as that is where the money is made. Even been talk of an autumn round to the Six Nations if the Autumn Internationals don't go ahead, but in reality at best they can probably hope to finish the two rounds of this years Six Nations. They also want to get the Lions Tour in at the end of next season as planned, though it now clashes with the Olympics (but the time zone should be favourable).

Not sure anyone other than Sky though would be upset if UEFA pulled the Nations League. Indeed as UEFA will be prioritising the Champions League above all else they may have to do that.

RTÉ is to give classic sports a regular slot on Thursdays at 9:30pm over the next few weeks! The list is heavily influenced by what sports RTÉ currently have rights to, with loads of GAA, some football, but little rugby (due to Virgin Media now having Six Nations rights).

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020/0414/1130468-rte-sport-to-screen-classic-matches-and-events/

FIFA seemingly admitting that there is little chance of international football this year due to travel restrictions and the need for domestic leagues to take priority.

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/sport/football/fifa-vice-president-says-international-football-fixtures-could-be-off-until-2021/ar-BB12BO2l

Hopefully weeks rather than years. One thing which has to be a dilemma with archive matches is whether you should include the results in the synopsis. Obviously some events are quite legendary so everyone knows the outcome, but I do think where possible they should give viewers the choice whether to watch without being reminded of the result if they choose.

Weeks of course (we all hope).