Views from the Sieve

Interesting France have approved Crowds of up to 5,000 for Sporting Events from July 11th
Being a month behind on most things could it be we could see Season start only a week or so later then planned

It is possible mate. It depends on if player testing is needed by then and if so who would pay for it. Social distancing down to 1 metre shouldn’t be too far away. Danish club today had a 2 seat gap between fans except for same household members. If the pubs are open by July 4th as some pub groups and landlords are insisting they will be opening, then providing a second wave doesn’t occur then I think we could be good to go.

This pandemic,I consider myself lucky as myself and the other half haven’t within our combined circle of family and friends suffered or heard of anyone who has tested positive or died. However, we have heard of a few deaths of friends family where Covid 19 was on the death certificate but the remaining family absolutely insist that wasn’t the case. Make of that as you will. Deep sympathy and condolences to any fans who haven’t been as lucky as ourselves.

I find it inconceivable that next season will kick off in the first week of August, especially as there are plans for play-offs from the middle to the end of July.

There's no way sides would complete in the play-offs then potentially have a just over a week before the next campaign began. According to Ollie Bayliss, a well informed non league journalist on Twitter, they're aiming for a September 8th start. Even that is on the optimistic side given that in a normal world we'd be returning for pre-season training in less than a fortnight.

No reason not to start at least by the end of August if trends on infections and deaths continue to decline, we have to learn to live with this virus. An end of August return around the bank holiday would make perfect sense, two quick games home and away for both teams with decent crowds.

If pubs are opening in July no reason we should not get going soon after.

Not a chance it will. Whilst there are still fears of a possible second wave we can’t go back as if we start up the season with a squad in place then lockdown is enforced again, then we are double-f****d.

As previously mentioned, Ollie Bayliss has suggested a September start date for step one being proposed, but that will need approval from the clubs and probably the govt too. Seeing how much they have struggled to just decide on how to end the season I don’t have any faith in the league being able to get that done. Then add in the needs of a preseason and I think we’d be more likely to start in November.

Personally I’m looking at when schools/public transport are both operating back as usual, as the space requirements feel similar to sports events. When things like that have proved that they are able to function without increasing the virus’ spread, then I’d fancy crowds at sports events to be back next.

What countries that have released lockdown have had second waves? You will get small local spikes in cases which will be managed accordingly, we can’t live like hermits forever and need to learn to live with it.

Not sure there will be many clubs around if we wait until November.

Going to be a very odd season. Probably won't have much of a pre season, most teams won't sign many players until they've got some income. Going to be a lot of free agents around going into winter.