The EFL had more than six months between last season stopping and the new one beginning to put even the most basic of rules in place about what constitutes a postponement due to Covid. Clear, simple rules that you can look at and say, “on” or “off” in a matter of seconds.
Half a year. HALF A YEAR.
This shouldn’t be happening. There shouldn’t be widespread uncertainty by this stage. Every club should know what to do and what the rules are, and on top of that there should be a cut off point beyond which you can’t even submit a request for a postponement - after the deadline you just have to go with what you’ve got. Call it 48 hours before kick-off, because you really should know by then if half of your squad is riddled with it. If the day before the game you find out a few have got it, tough. Either start someone else (you have more than 20 senior players alone for a reason) and get some kids from the youth team on the bench to make up numbers. All clubs should be following social distancing protocols in the week anyway. Players well spread out in dressing areas, sticking to their own cars and households, not touching each other outside of competing on the pitch (no physical ‘banter’, no high fiving and so forth). If you’re getting four, five, six cases at once then it’s because your players aren’t behaving themselves. They’re either mixing with each other or they’re mixing with whoever else they like at home.
If the season is going to continue, let alone actually complete, then it can’t continue to be a sea of shrugging shoulders. Maybe if the head of the EFL spent more time administering the league, and less time trying to do dodgy backroom deals with the big boys over a steak and a bottle of champagne, we would actually have a functioning football league.
Complete f*****g joke. Whether it’s officially called off or not isn’t even the issue at this stage, we shouldn’t be in a position where this uncertainty can even drag on.