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Publish Date: Tuesday May 12, 2020 9:22 AM
The tweet did not help. Daily Telegraph chief soccer correspondent Jason Burt knew that the real story is that football could be undervalued until at least next year if its main protagonists do not agree with the “cultural changes” in the sport now. Regardless of whether soccer resumes in June, July, August, or October, this is the new version of soccer that everyone should adopt. There is no option to wait three months and then Premier League football can resume as if a global pandemic has not changed all of our lives in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
The headline reflected the story: “Exclusive: Premier League to tell players: Play now or don’t take a chance on football until next year,” but the tweet was a little different, emphasizing one detail of the agenda that will be discussed with the captains and coaches. And it was obviously the most absurd detail and caused a completely predictable reaction.
Exclusive @JBurtTelegraph Reporting on the Premier League’s plan to convince captains and managers that it’s safe to resume includes telling players to “turn around when faced with them” https://t.co/kJjHFdqt1v
– Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) May 12, 2020
What was lost for those without a Telegraph subscription was that the devil was in the details: Players will be encouraged to “turn their heads when rising from a challenge.” It is not so absurd and it is certainly no less practical than a thousand directives to be issued in a hundred industries that will return to work in the coming weeks. It will not be a rule or a law, but a guide. There will not be a person working in any industry in the world who will not be emailed in the next few weeks with lists of things to do, what to do and maybe you should think. Until we are told otherwise, behaving as we normally would is not an option.
All of this guidance in all of those industries will come down to three things: trying to avoid unnecessary face-to-face contact, trying to avoid unnecessary contact of shared surfaces, and keeping our hands and face as clean as possible in case the first two things prove impossible. Looking the other way out of a challenge is a fairly easy way to limit face-to-face contact, and other potential measures: no carpools, sanitized balls, and corner flags, keeping a distance when talking to officials, everyone are under the other headings. And they all have common sense if something probably doesn’t make sense is about to happen.
And that is the problem. It may be that practicing contact sport is really absurd here. There is a good chance that within a month, we will all wonder why the hell such an idea was entertained. But the headline remains the same: If it seems absurd in a month, it will remain so in a month. If soccer is going to return, then it has to come with adaptations like any other kind of life. Finally, footballers are really being treated (almost) like everyone else. The pay may be inflated and the evidence may be plentiful, but going back to work still carries risks and still involves adjustments.
It’s easy to scoff at the idea of ’head-to-head confrontations’ and speculate on ‘headless shots’ or ‘headless headers’, but what would be far more ridiculous would be to return footballers to training camps. and then launches without a warning or advice on how to protect yourself. That would be really ridiculous.
Should Premier League football return amid a pandemic? Probably not. But if the football Premier League is You are coming back in the middle of a pandemic, should you be prepared and as safe as possible for any contact sport? Absolutely.
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