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It should have been a month of celebration for Liverpool fans.
A month of trophy lifts and parades, drinking, dancing, singing and smiling. A shared experience and shared joy.
The end of the long and painful wait.
The league’s 19th title was enjoyed like no other. The party had been in development for 30 years. Back on top, back on his perch, and the Reds were ready to tell the world about it.
“The Unbearable” were prepared.
It will still happen. Liverpool will continue to be crowned champion, one way or another. They are still the best team in the country, and also at a distance. Jurgen Klopp and his team are still assured of their place in the club’s history. Nothing has changed.
Except everything
With the Bundesliga back this weekend and the Premier League working slowly but surely towards a return date in June, Goal has been talking to dozens of fans, discovering how they feel about the idea of the return of professional football.
The image, painted primarily on social media or by ill-informed commentators on news channels, is of a selfish band of fans concerned not with public health, safety, or the integrity of the sport, but with that elusive title; that long-awaited opportunity to enjoy the brilliance of success.
The reality, as always, is quite different.
Paul Machin is the season ticket holder for Anfield and runs the popular Redmen television channel, which produces more than 30 shows per month in Liverpool.
He is concerned with the “moral dilemma” that he and many other supporters face.
“It is a real dilemma,” he says. “If I was just a fan, I’d be desperate to see him again. And as a business owner whose business focuses on soccer, you could really use it back, too.
“But I have seen the realities of this virus. We have lost a family member. I had it myself in March, and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. It is horrible.
“In addition to that, my wife is a teacher and is preparing to return to work in a few weeks, without knowing for sure that it will be safe.
“With all that, it makes it very difficult to rationalize things and think only about football.”
Machin’s concerns are well founded. In Merseyside, nearly 1,000 people died after testing positive for COVID-19, while almost 5,000 cases have been reported across the region.
On Monday, Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region underground, suggested that the UK government’s relaxation of the blockade rules may have come too soon, while the decision to allow the last Liverpool meeting, the defeat of the Champions League against Atlético Madrid on March 11, going ahead with more than 52,000 fans within Anfield, is one that remains under scrutiny.
Rotheram is one of those who have called for an independent investigation.
“I remember being out after that game, and knowing it was the last game, the last night we’d have for a while,” says Neil Atkinson of the award-winning podcast The Anfield Wrap.
“Even before the game, many people felt in conflict. They weren’t sure they should go. They knew something was wrong. It was an amazing decision. “
Atkinson rejects the idea promoted by some, including Joe Anderson, Liverpool’s mayor who supports Everton, that allowing the game to return now would encourage fans to abandon social distancing measures by congregating in or around stadiums.
“Last week, we saw people doing exactly that as part of VE Day celebrations,” he says. “We have seen people doing it in parks, on beaches, even on Westminster Bridge. They were in the national news! Everyone saw them!
“The concerns that some people may ignore the rules are perfectly valid. But re-classifying “some people” as “soccer fans” is typical of how many people perceive followers. It’s been the same since the 1950s, this impression that people have of fans is just going crazy.
“Are we saying that thousands of people would appear in Anfield, where they would not be able to watch the game, where they would not be able to have a drink because the pubs were closed, where they would risk their own health? And that of those around them, and where they would potentially harm the reputation of your own football club?
“A small number of people could, but a small number of people will do their best to ignore the rules anyway. We’ve already seen a small number of people do it, live on the news. I’m sure not everyone had tickets to the Premier League season! “
Another season ticket holder for the Reds who wants to remain anonymous agrees.
“I think people have generally shown remarkable patience and understanding under the circumstances,” he says. “They have not seen their parents, their friends, their partners and their children in some cases.
“People have been unable to attend funerals, they have left birthday gifts in the foreground of their loved ones.” They’ve done their best to help protect people, and then you get people like Joe Anderson who basically say they’ll just drop all of that because soccer is more important to them. It’s insulting, not just for Liverpool fans but for people in general. “
Anfield, of course, will be without followers for some time. On the days of the crowded Kop, the red-lined streets are seen far away. We can expect the games to be played behind closed doors until 2021 at least, and probably longer.
“There are definitely mixed emotions about that,” says John Howard, a Liverpool season ticket holder.
“I really want to have football again in my life. I don’t think you appreciate the great part that he plays, day by day, until he is there. You need something in your life that will pump your blood, and that many people will give it to you Has removed.
“But for me, soccer is a social sport, a social occasion, and I’m not sure how much it will be enjoyable if you can’t be there, or even watch games with friends and family.” It’s not the same, is it? “
Paul Machin of The Redmen TV agrees.
“That’s what I go to football for,” he says. “I love passion, I love being in the crowd. There is nothing like that.
“My best footballing memories are those random moments, celebrating with a complete stranger by my side, sharing the experience. It’s what I’m looking for.
“So losing that feeling is a huge thing. Football will come back but unfortunately it won’t be that good.”
And what about the moral debate, the idea that investing so much time and resources in what many people still see as a search for leisure simply feels bad in a context of death, illness and uncertainty around the world? How can we talk about soccer, they say, when much more important things happen?
“I get it,” says Neil Atkinson, “but we are talking about the world getting back to some kind of normality, and for many people that involve the return of football.”
“It’s a big part of many people’s lives. Shouldn’t we be talking about Tiger King? Or Dua Lipa’s new album? How can we talk about television and music at a time like this?
“Of course we can, just as we can talk about sports, movies, or anything else that makes life normal.
“Sport is more than what happens on the field. It’s part of life. It is important to people. I use the rugby league as an example; I don’t think enough people are talking about what’s going on there. Entire communities are on the verge of collapse. That’s not important? Isn’t that worth talking about?
One of the arguments put forward by those eager to see the return of football is the idea of ”raising the morale of the nation,” which would provide not only something to watch on television but also a distraction, something to free people from the daily routine.
Strongly disagree.
“I don’t give a shit about the nation’s morale,” Danny’s on-loan advocate Danny Rose said this week, while people like Todd Cantwell, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Agüero and Tyrone Mings have voiced similar concerns about returning to action. Player safety has rightly been on the top of the agenda during talks between the Premier League, its clubs and its broadcast partners.
So, too, he has the idea of ”sports integrity”. Although Liverpool’s task, if football resumes, is relatively simple: they need six points from nine games to be crowned champions; Elsewhere in the league there is much more uncertainty. Particularly around promotion and relegation, for example, where the financial repercussions are huge.
This has naturally led to accusations of self-interest, since the clubs and followers defend for and against the restart of football.
Liverpool fans are considered selfish, cold and indifferent, obsessed with just one guy 19, while the lowest in the league are spoilers, dragging their heels, using every trick in the book in an attempt to save their own bacon. .
Everyone has their opinion and their prejudices.
“Anyone who feels they have a neutral opinion on this is deceived,” says Paul Machin. “Everyone has a side, and everyone’s position is motivated by their own interest.
“Liverpool fans, whether we admit it or not, have a natural bias towards the end of the season for obvious reasons. Others do not, for obvious reasons. “
Everton supporters are among those with little reason to push for the restart of soccer. The Blues were 12th in the table when the season was suspended, with little danger of relegation, but outside of the FA Cup and a European place unlikely.
But how do his fans see it? Are they looking for a bit of normalcy, something to look forward to in these times of crisis, or would they rather see Liverpool refuse a league title on the field?
“That really doesn’t bother me,” says Gareth Halsall, season ticket holder from Goodison Park. “Sure, I would end up with my red teammates and have a joke, I would tell them that they really haven’t won, but when a team is so far ahead, everyone knows they are the best, right? You can’t argue with Liverpool as champions.
“For me, the problems related to the start-up are not about whether Liverpool gets the title, they are questions of health and logistics. Do the players want to play? Can their safety be guaranteed? And from a sporting perspective, are they Will the game be compromised beyond recognition? Those are the questions, and they haven’t been answered yet. “
Another Goodison regular, Tony Scott, insists that the season should not be resumed. Scott is part of All Together Now, a weekly Everton podcast, and tells Goal that the idea of games being played in empty neutral stadiums simply “doesn’t feel right.”
“I love soccer,” he says. “I miss him so much, he’s everything I’ve ever known in my life. But how can he come back now? How can I not see my niece, my brother, my father or my mother, but 22 men can run together through a field football? That’s not right, is it?
“I don’t think it’s fair or fair that the season will restart at this point.”
Matt Ladson of the This is Anfield website offers the alternative view.
“What you have to remember is that in a few weeks, the world will look a little different than it is now,” he says.
“I would say that most people who have a job will go back to work somehow before June 12, so why wouldn’t footballers be a part of that?
“My big argument on the issue of security is that if you are a footballer, you are only coming into contact with people who have been tested for the virus. It is a safer environment than many other people in society will face.”
Ladson believes Liverpool will be champion, one way or another, but he admits that the Reds’ form of victory, after three decades of dreaming, would be something like a wet squib.
“We would be lying if we said otherwise,” he says. “It is an anti-climax not only for fans but also for Jurgen Klopp and his players. You feel for them as much as anyone.
“We all dreamed of how this league victory would happen and how we would all celebrate it, we had even planned it! – But now we can’t. It’s a bit flat, to say the least.
“But there is a bigger picture to think about. And who knows, maybe it could lead to the team being even more successful in the future.
Imagine that? A double celebration next year for the league’s 20th title. Back to our hanger forever. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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