How Do You Solve A Problem Like The Premier League?

Like the rest of the globe we, at Full Time Devils Blog, feel like we have lost a limb since sport has been postponed. Since there isn’t any football a few of us have got together to put our views on how the rest of the season should be decided. I wouldn’t be too surprised if you see a common theme from us all but I can assure you we are totally unbiased…
Here are the views of the team:

Nadz
As a United fan the season should be null and void. It would be brilliant to see Liverpool not win the title. However, trying to be neutral a more realistic proposal could be to have playoff games knowing a complete season is nigh-on impossible.
Playoffs between the top 8 (once teams have played the same number of games) to determine final league positions. The higher ranked team would have home advantage in the first round with the winner progressing. Clubs in the bottom 3 would play the top 3 in the Championship. This could be replicated throughout the leagues and make for an exciting end to the season!

Jamie Andrews
Cancel it. Just void everything off. Not even because of the Scousers winning the title but realistically in this climate as much as it pains us all, sport is not the priority. Sitting and debating about who gets the title, who gets relegated and who gets promoted etc doesn’t matter right now. However, the governing bodies of football (FIFA, UEFA, The FA etc) need to ensure that they are supporting the clubs that will be impacted by the loss of revenue from playing no games and generating no ticket sales.

Callum Stone
No football and almost no sports whatsoever shows us that the coronavirus pandemic is more serious than originally thought and with us all in the unknown about how the football season is going to conclude, now is the time for the respective governing bodies to do the right thing. But what is the right thing? Well, it depends… I’m going to try hide my bias as a Manchester United fan. If the situation improves, and with the Euros postponed we can finish the season. Yes, it will mean Liverpool win the league but we will have to deal with it one day. However, this doesn’t look likely and the well being of everybody should come first. In this instance we should declare the season null and void and start again once we have the coronavirus under control. There is no easy answer to this and despite what Bill Shankly said; Football is not more important than life and death.

Jonni Henson
I won’t hide the fact it would be great for the season to be null and void with where both Liverpool and Leeds are in their respective tables. Although I do have the mindset that everything should come to a conclusion. There are teams that have played less games in the league however there are teams, like ourselves, that would have a favourable run in to the end of the season. Football is so important to millions of people but everyone’s health must be paramount. So I suggest the postponement should be as long as required and the season then be completed once it restarts. This should not just be for our domestic leagues but for European Cup competitions and other European leagues because they all will have a knock on effect. There is clearly no wrong suggestions in this instance but one thing we must remember if we don’t complete all fixtures then Liverpool will never truly have won the league in the 2019/20 season.

Brian Cleary
While every part of me screams “declare it null and void,” I know that that’s more hope than expectation. The FA would see it as a failure not to complete the season and there would be a lot of tough decisions to be made which could have huge financial implications on a lot of clubs.
What we are dealing with is an unprecedented pandemic crisis so right now it’s impossible to put a timeline on when normal service will resume. The Euros has been pushed back to take place in 2021 and this has allowed this season to finish at some stage in the summer but with a fixture schedule akin to the Christmas period.

Austin Joseph
An unprecedented hiatus has the football world in a limbo. Which leaves us with the million dollar question, What about the premier league? Liverpool are ahead by 25 points and teams battling for champions league and their survival in the premier league. But what do we do now? In my opinion, a reasonable option would be to wait and see if this season can be finished by the first week of July. With the Euros being postponed, we have a bigger window and that’ll be enough break before the new season starts. But if that isn’t possible, the 2019-2020 season should be deemed null and void with the next season being a restart of the current one. No champion, no relegation.

Jay Motty

Listen, let’s not pretend that for many of us the chance of seeing a Liverpool side that’s absolutely walked the league, not lift the title is a mouth watering prospect. Even if it comes at the expense of United’s chances of Champions League football next season. Putting tribalism aside, for one brief moment though, it would be right and proper that Jurgen Klopp’s team are given every chance to get their hands on the trophy we’ve lifted 13 times. That chance must have a limit though, before it reaches past the realms of wisdom. Setting a deadline of the end of May for the season to resume and then playing until the end of June (with no Euros to worry about) seems a logical way of completing the season, if we’re still not ready by that date, then it’s time to face facts and move on to 2020/21, scrapping this season. Regardless of how upset Phil Thompson gets, some things really do mean more. JM.

The general feel would be that the season should be given chance to be completed. However, with games in hand and no position mathematically finalised if the season was unable to be completed then no team should be forced to be relegated and equally no title should be given.
With all this up for discussion we would all like to wish everyone good health through this difficult time for everyone.