Postpone games, don’t punish fans: Neil Humphreys
Playing behind closed doors is fake football
In one tweet, Ander Herrera proved more effective than he ever was at Manchester United.
"Good time to remember that football without fans is nothing," he tweeted.
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder sidestepped the corpulent vested interests to state the obvious.
No fans. No football. It would be ignorant and hypocritical to pretend otherwise.
In fact, a match played willingly behind closed doors, presumably for commercial reasons, is less than nothing. It is fraudulent, a professional sport for the people that doesn't provide professional sport for the people.
An event behind closed doors represents the Theatre of the Absurd, a farcical fiction masquerading as reality. Football without fans is fake football.
If that live connection is lost - thanks to the coronavirus - then professional leagues are duty-bound to postpone matches, rather than punish the folks that matter most.
So Manchester City and Arsenal deserve credit for postponing this morning's (Singapore time) English Premier League clash due to several Gunners coming into contact with Evangelos Marinakis.
The Olympiakos owner has been diagnosed with Covid-19 and those Arsenal players are now in self-isolation.
City and Arsenal's response has been sensible, considered and fair.
But still, there's a suggestion that the show must go on and the English Premier League should follow La Liga and the Champions League in playing behind closed doors.
But that's not an example of the show going on. That's not even a show. That's financial and TV interests superseding those of the punters.
Pep Guardiola, Juergen Klopp and Nuno Espirito Santo are united in their distaste for playing for no one. It's a hollow performance.
The actor that performs for an empty auditorium isn't really an actor. He's a selfish narcissist, perhaps, but he's not an actor.
Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Nuno said as much, expressing his frustration that their Europa League tie at Olympiakos was going to be played behind closed doors, rather than postponed.
His argument was valid. Why are Wolves fans being isolated, but not the players?
In truth, the well-being of both groups isn't particularly prioritised in "behind closed doors" fixtures. The contradictory principle only shines a torch on the game's heart of darkness.
It's pumping cash and cannot stop, not even for Covid-19.
FANS AT THE STADIUM
Stadium fans are convenient for supplying that ready-made atmosphere to sell in cable TV packages, but they are of little consequence otherwise. Their concerns are rarely considered.
The decision has been taken to play the LASK-Manchester United game in an empty Austrian stadium, presumably satisfying TV requirements, but ignoring the thousand Red Devils' fans who forked out for flights and hotel rooms for the trip.
There's almost a "let them eat cake" air of indifference towards those further down the food chain, too.
Europe's top leagues - Serie A, La Liga and even the EPL - can survive games behind closed doors. Lower league clubs cannot.
Gary Neville, who co-owns Salford City with Singaporean Peter Lim, has implored policymakers not to impose a supporter ban across all tiers of football.
For smaller clubs, an empty arena is financial suicide.
Neville has intimated that lower league teams may need bridging loans to cover lost ticket sales in the short term.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich and even Manchester City can absorb the costs of playing inside a deserted stadium, so the latter deserves credit for acknowledging the bigger picture here.
Postpone games, certainly. But do not punish supporters - and clubs further down the pyramid - by severing the umbilical cord between footballers and fans and then pretend it doesn't really matter.
It matters.
No one seriously believes Bill Shankly's hackneyed quote about football being more important than life and death. Even Shankly didn't.
As the Serie A shutdown admirably demonstrates, nothing comes before the health of a community. So play the games when the virus is contained. Extend the season and delay Euro 2020 if necessary.
There are always options in a crisis. But the "behind closed doors" policy is mixed messaging at its most baffling.
The supporters can't congregate, but the players can. The stadiums are empty, but the fans still gather in groups to watch on TV (or turn up and cheer outside the closed stadiums).
The fixture is important, but the atmosphere isn't. It's a spectacle, but there are no spectators.
It's nonsense.
In Singapore and across Asia, the coronavirus has forced societies to indulge in a little existential navel-gazing, which is never a bad thing.
As we withdraw and isolate, we question ourselves. What do we need in our lives, beyond toilet rolls? In the end, what's really important to us?
Elite football should be similarly frank with its self-assessment in the coming days. The people's game must remember to put its people first.
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