[Albion] Covid outbreak at spurs?

[Giraffe]

A snippet from The Athletic's piece on the subject:

What about Sunday’s Premier League match against Brighton?

The situation for Premier League matches is different. For these, there is no set rule but clubs can appeal for a game to be postponed, and then it’s up to the Premier League’s board to decide.
Precedent suggests Spurs would be in a strong position to have the game postponed if they made that request. Their match against Fulham was postponed last December when Fulham had six players test positive for COVID-19. A couple of days before that, Manchester City had seven positive cases when they successfully requested their match against Everton be moved.

The full article:
https://theathletic.com/3003029/2021/12/07/explained-tottenhams-covid-outbreak-what-does-it-mean-for-upcoming-matches/

This stinks. Why would any organisation not have a firm hard set of rules based on number of players available. It just leaves them wide open to accusations of one rule for one set of the clubs (the bigger ones!) and one rule for everyone else.

They all name a 25 man squad. How difficult would it be to say that if you have less than 14 of that squad available the match is off? Easy enough to have medical certification around it as well. Not rocket science is it, which suggests they just want to pick and chose themselves.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

This is the thorny issue for all businesses - how can an employer be liable for an employee spreading COVID when there are still groups who for medical reasons can't have the vaccine? And you can't discriminate against people for that just as you can't legally discriminate against people who have chosen not to have the vaccine. It could be argued that it then becomes employer responsibility to put appropriate health and safety in place to mitigate the risks but again, that's a whole different argument. And then you get into discussion about knowing what people's vaccine status is and whether or not that's something you can demand to know (I don't think you can) which means you have to potentially have vulnerable vaccinated people sat in a small meeting room with unvaccinated people and neither knowing because there's no mandatory declaration...and who is responsible for the duty of care in that situation? I'm far from an expert but it all looks like a real minefield to me.

In the current climate, I don't disagree with any of that. And I know analogies are precarious at the best of times, but with regard to someone's personal situation can we make any useful comparisons with hypotheticals? Say for instance, diphtheria, polio, TB, gained a foothold again. Polio here for instance routinely caused 7000 cases a year, with 10% of those dying. Feels rather like small beer compared to covid - both are airborne - but babies are vaccinated without (to my knowledge) any fuss. So why is vacc. status nowadays such a secret? Or is the answer to that wrapped up in the word "nowadays"?

EDIT: I've strayed way too far away from my point, which is should Spurs be punished. Obviously more info is needed but I say yes, relegate them.

 

[Springal]

This stinks. Why would any organisation not have a firm hard set of rules based on number of players available. It just leaves them wide open to accusations of one rule for one set of the clubs (the bigger ones!) and one rule for everyone else.

They all name a 25 man squad. How difficult would it be to say that if you have less than 14 of that squad available the match is off? Easy enough to have medical certification around it as well. Not rocket science is it, which suggests they just want to pick and chose themselves.

Equally we are part of the PL - you'd have thought clubs would have voted to put something in place for this scenario but obviously didn't. Perhaps because most clubs are scared to be at the right / wrong end of it

 

[Bozza]

Equally we are part of the PL - you'd have thought clubs would have voted to put something in place for this scenario but obviously didn't. Perhaps because most clubs are scared to be at the right / wrong end of it

Agreed - it does seem surprising that across all the Covid-specific meetings clubs must have had over the last 20 months or so, they didn't come up with a ruling on this.

 

[Giraffe]

Equally we are part of the PL - you'd have thought clubs would have voted to put something in place for this scenario but obviously didn't. Perhaps because most clubs are scared to be at the right / wrong end of it

And therein lies the problem!

 

[Springal]

Another angle is TV - I’d bet if this was on tv and the ‘cost’ of postponement was in play it’d be a different decision to make than it not being on tv

 

[Giraffe]

Agreed - it does seem surprising that across all the Covid-specific meetings clubs must have had over the last 20 months or so, they didn't come up with a ruling on this.

It seems inconceivable they didn't discuss it. I guess they just couldn't agree on what the level would be so they just kicked it into the long grass and hoped it wouldn't be a major problem?

 

[Driver8]

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...request-brighton-match-postponed-b970711.html

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

This stinks. Why would any organisation not have a firm hard set of rules based on number of players available. It just leaves them wide open to accusations of one rule for one set of the clubs (the bigger ones!) and one rule for everyone else.

They all name a 25 man squad. How difficult would it be to say that if you have less than 14 of that squad available the match is off? Easy enough to have medical certification around it as well. Not rocket science is it, which suggests they just want to pick and chose themselves.

I 100 percent agree.

Spurs had two games called off last season against Fulham and Villa due to them having a number out with Covid, they should have gone ahead.

I’m pretty sure that will be Spurs line of getting it called off.

 

[Swansman]

Premier League has always been a bit "meh" when it comes to teams having sick players. There was the Spurs game where pretty much all of their players had food poisoning and they still played. In 96/97 Middlesbrough were relegated because they didnt show up at a game due to flu and got a three point deduction in addition to their WO-loss (and in the end got relegated by 2 points).

Will be interesting to see how they treat this game. Tottenham are already one game behind due to the postponed Burnley game, they are still in the League Cup and if they qualify from their Conference League group there is just not a lot of room to postpone any games. So far it appears they've not asked to postpone it and I think there is a decent chance that while they would likely get such a request granted, they might not want the fixture congestion later on.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Premier League has always been a bit "meh" when it comes to teams having sick players. There was the Spurs game where pretty much all of their players had food poisoning and they still played. In 96/97 Middlesbrough were relegated because they didnt show up at a game due to flu and got a three point deduction in addition to their WO-loss (and in the end got relegated by 2 points).

Will be interesting to see how they treat this game. Tottenham are already one game behind due to the postponed Burnley game, they are still in the League Cup and if they qualify from their Conference League group there is just not a lot of room to postpone any games. So far it appears they've not asked to postpone it and I think there is a decent chance that while they would likely get such a request granted, they might not want the fixture congestion later on.

I think we will throw the kids in tomorrow, which will see us eliminated from the ECL in all likelihood

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Another angle is TV - I’d bet if this was on tv and the ‘cost’ of postponement was in play it’d be a different decision to make than it not being on tv

Not sure, it is being broadcast in a zillion other countries

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

 

[Springal]

Not sure, it is being broadcast in a zillion other countries

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

Sure - but cost of sky set up there etc, and then having to make sure the rescheduled game is broadcast as well as their postponed Burnley game

 

[Swansman]

I think we will throw the kids in tomorrow, which will see us eliminated from the ECL in all likelihood

Rennes might do the same as they are already qualified

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Sure - but cost of sky set up there etc, and then having to make sure the rescheduled game is broadcast as well as their postponed Burnley game

Burnley wasn’t on TV in UK

Not sure there is a cost anyway, most grounds are set up to be plug abs play.

 

[BNthree]

https://theathletic.com/news/totten...ighton-due-to-covid-19-outbreak/EKafaeGjB5pe/

 

[papajaff]

Well I hope they make a decision soon as I'm due to fly back on Saturday from Czech. Can hopefully delay for a week.
I have a PCR test booked for tomorrow evening and a test at Gatwick on Saturday.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Well I hope they make a decision soon as I'm due to fly back on Saturday from Czech. Can hopefully delay for a week.
I have a PCR test booked for tomorrow evening and a test at Gatwick on Saturday.

Yep, a mate of ours is supposed to be over from Malta and had already had to make some changes because of the new travel rules.

 

[Change at Barnham]

If the main stream media are reporting that Spurs are applying for the postponement it will be a done deal.

There is no way that the Premier League would make a team play with the current advice of everyone remaining cautious.

 

[Giraffe]

If the main stream media are reporting that Spurs are applying for the postponement it will be a done deal.

There is no way that the Premier League would make a team play with the current advice of everyone remaining cautious.

Yep I agree. Provided a team doesn't overplay their hand if they ask and have proof of an outbreak the Premier League is not going to say no. On to Wolves!