Clubs told to prepare to lock out fans over virus fears

Here in Adelaide the supermarkets are running out of toilet paper. We see people with trolleys full of the stuff. Many of the Chinese community are sending the stuff back to China, where there is a shortage apparently.

Maybe we'll see a resurgence of using what we had to do when we were kids in the 1950s - Newspaper. Just think about it - a revival of the old media?

Come to think of it, this is apt as most of it is a load of crap anyhow!

There is a good fun video on YouTube – WIE MAN MIT EINEM OHRWURM EINEN VIRUS BEKAMPFT – it's sung in English to the tune of I Can't Get No Satisfaction (The Stones).

Anyway, we have Cheltenham.

Give the fans something else to look at rather than the poor performances we are being subjected too. Forget about Europe. It's time for change at 95 per cent of positions.

2020: Coronavirus causes football to shut down; Champions – Liverpool.

1985: Liverpool caus European no-go; Champions – Everton.

1982: War in the Falklands; Champions – Liverpool.

1939: Second World War halts the Football League; Champions – Everton,

1914: First World War halts the Football League; Champions – Everton.

Is there something in the water on Merseyside?

[All tongue-in-cheek.]

As for stockpiling toilet rolls, this a virus that affects your breathing so you'll have problems more with your nose than with your arse! But does this mean that rather than one being born every minute that one is dying every day?

Supposedly, sales of Corona beer have dropped because some absolute geniuses think the beer can cause coronavirus.

I had a beer per period, three beers. Good times. Best $24 I've ever spent. Bruins won in overtime 2-1 in case you were remotely curious.

If England plays the games behind closed doors, based upon the number of cases in your country, I find that to be moving past "prudent" and into "over-reacting". And by over-reacting, I mean $8 24-ounce Corona over-reacting.

Having said that, coronavirus surely is just ramping up to a full-blown zombie apocalypse.

Premier Hotels in NYC are down to $150/night.

Hamilton: front mezzanine $350. Me and the Mrs are off for a fancy weekend. One roll of loo paper should fund the entire expedition!

It's having a marked affect on things for sure.

Take a look at Wall Street lately?

There's been a correction coming; it's overdue. But coronavirus might cause a full-blown recession if this continues.

And that'll trickle down. China is most affected by coronavirus to be sure (presently). Toss in an American down-tick in the economy, and guess who really gets hurt?

The poor Chinese people. We stop buying, they lose jobs. Sick, impoverished, and unemployed is a shit thing.

The 1918 influenza pandemic killed between 15-20 MILLION people around the world, more than were killed in action during the first World War.

Even last year, flu killed over 30,000 people according to figures released by the US CDC (Centre for Disease Control).

So far, I believe we've had five deaths in the UK, not exactly epidemic proportions! All but one had existing health issues and were thus more vulnerable.

Yet, the world is going crazy, panic buying, stockpiling loo rolls, and now various governments are seriously considering banning sporting events or having them take place behind closed doors.

Have the snowflakes taken over the world? I'm sorry, but I fail to see the reasons for such a mad panic. We're nowhere near epidemic proportions, and even if we were, just keeping people away from football grounds isn't going to be the cure.

God help us if we had to go to war tomorrow. This country has totally lost its spine, its stiff-upper-lip 'Britishness'. We wouldn't stand a bleedin' chance!

Where is the logic?

Yesterday, I bought the last pack of bog roll left on the shelf. This panic buying is bullshit and someone's making a fortune out of it.

Like you so succinctly say, the expected crowds at Cheltenham with no restriction, in comparison with all football matches being played behind closed doors, it defies belief almost.

I feel for one of our own, John Boon, who now lives in Canada, and has arranged to fly over with two sons for the derby, which could ostensibly be a 'non-event' — does he get compensated? I doubt it very much!

Mind you, after Sunday's debacle, most of us are not looking forward to a match that could confirm Liverpool as Champions.

As someone who has underlying health issues and a daughter with a chronic condition, this is no laughing matter. The UK should call off all gatherings immediately and, if the virus keeps spreading, lock down the whole country. Only when a member of the Royal family gets it will we see real action.

A virus with the potential to kill people with existing health conditions is a Tory dream – all those people who can't contribute to the wealth of the country taking a hit – just what the Tory spin doctor ordered.

An interesting dilemma for season-ticket holders, as to whether they would try to reclaim part of the season-ticket cost and thereby contribute to their club's demise; or treat it as a sunk cost to themselves, and thereby help their club to survive.

Thoughts if this scenario were to impact on Everton? My two penneth worth? I wouldn't reclaim.

As for sporting events or any mass gatherings – if they are not strictly necessary, then play them all behind closed doors for a few weeks The clubs make most of their money from TV anyway. In the UK, we only have a relatively small number of cases as yet, but like Italy, it could suddenly shoot upwards.

My mate here in rural Wales has to go up to London once a month for work and he works with an Italian from the Lombardy area, and the italian said that people round there ignored the warnings, determined to continue their very social lifestyle, some saying it won't happen – all media hype, and some selfish ones, saying they didn't care if a bunch of old people croaked it.

Either way, ignoring it won't stop it. The UK government only care about the economy, and will happily overlook the unnecessary fatalities as long as they can elongate the curve on the bar chart, so that the Health Service can cope over a long but less intense period.

It would (imo) be better to have a lockdown now and try to nip it in the bud. There will then be plenty of other sporting events later in the year.

The whole health service is operating at 200% capacity and it is generally reckoned that Italy has a very good health service. People at ground floor level are talking about chaos and now a lot of the healthcare professionals are becoming ill.

It will take a miracle for the same thing not to be duplicated in the UK.

Most of the over-70s have fought for their countries: Vietnam vets, Afghanistan, Falklands etc., I'm sure this virus is the last thing on most of their minds. Most people I have seen wearing masks seem to be younger than 70... for fuck's sake, have a bit of common sense!

Politicians creating panic.

On Facebook the other day, I saw that someone was asking 𧸖 for hand sanitizer. It's a shame that some people's first thought is to profit on the back of this virus, it looks really scary what's going on in Italy.

Correct. See a photo at this link.

Link

Note the red fencing.

It was a Liverpool v Man Utd game in the 1970s.

Hit the nail on the head right there.

Whereas Germany aren't at the moment considering playing any of their clubs' games behind closed doors, or making any restrictions in movement. And they have far more confirmed cases than the UK.

Really informative article in today's Guardian about this. It reckons that someone with this, tends to infect two other people on average, and also most infections tend to be passed on in families.

Early on it is similar to flu, and it's thought that this confusion explains why they were so slow catching on in Italy. About 80% of cases are extremely mild and some are not picked up. This is why early estimates of mortality might have been overstated.

It dispels a few myths, and worth a read. It doesn't underplay the seriousness of it either.

It's also saying that food bank donations are plummeting, in some areas by 75%, because of hoarding.

Yes, we are more prepared than Italy as governments across the world put measures in place. However, they are in the dark on how many people will become ill. Please do not think mass gatherings at football grounds won't put numbers up. Let's not encourage the virus to spread. As we know, human beings are inherently selfish with their own behaviour. Governments need to protect everyone.

It's only a game!!

And would cause hysterical laughter across the entire country as the whining RS get a splendid bit of karma payback.

A friend has a brother in London who is a hospital consultant and he told my friend that we (the public) don't know the half of it. The government are worried about panicking the populace.

If the Government allow life to continue as normal they run the risk of increased infection rates and the possibility of overwhelming the hospitals. It's not an easy call to make and I'm glad it's not my decision to make.

In my case, I am flying home to Liverpool from Canada with my son, John "Everton", and my son-in-law, Dan. We all want a Blue win, despite the challenge, as well as the virus. Everton seem to have had a virus all season. My son will also be celebrating his 50th birthday while I will be celebrating just being able to be at Goodison Park. So PLEASE let the game go on.

To a regular ToffeeWebber, John McFarlane. Hope to see you and any other true Blues on Tuesday 17 March at the Central Hotel at 12.00 noon. This will make our one week fly over worthwhile, hopefully with two more points

I understand the calls for caution. It makes sense. But the reaction is completely over the top. The numbers simply don't justify it. The response from the powers-that-be is one of fear. They don't know how to combat this, ergo, they're scared of the consequences.

Wash you hands kids, and pray for calm and good health.

Play the games. Don't do it behind closed doors. We're not there yet, and the evidence is we will never be there. China is already showing receding, and Korea is the same. This, like all things, will pass. Keep that economy going and dump some serious money into R&D in case it rears it's ugly head again.

I'm with you in my astonishment at some of the nonsense and over reaction going on. Similar happened with SARS and Ebola and neither of those achieved the levels forecast, but I'm tending towards caution on this. The Head of Public Health here has just said that the peak in the UK won't START for another fortnight.

I've been amazed that the main panic merchants have been health professionals, both here and WHO. This has fed into everything else. Bog rolls and FTSE alike!

Unless severely asthmatic or pensioner or child another respiratory or severe illness, coronavirus will have little impact other than flu symptoms. Issue is panic by some due to overhype by the media which leaves any government no option but to react and plan.

I have this sense the EPL are trying to get the RS over the line before delaying/cancelling any games.

Now we are being told how to wash our hands.

Difficult to know. I'm a bit of a semi-panic merchant here. I don't take it too seriously, but I'm making sure my family do.

Illogical? Yep

It's not panic, it's sensible. I mentioned previously I went to South Florida to see the Bruins play the Panthers (NHL).

I had my 10 year old wash his hands like 6 to 7 times throughout the course of the game. That's basic, intelligent stuff.

Making sure your family is safe is like Dad job #1 for me. It's not illogical. You're just hedging your bets for what matters most.

What song do we wash our hands to folks?!

And remind people about the Russia Report, about 𧴺bn and counting for Brexit and Johnson's corrupt dealings. That is why this ridiculous panic is being perpetrated by the media.

And wash your hands.

And if, like me, you had a shocker at Cheltenham, there's three days left, so keep swinging!

There are a huge number of issues associated with ending the season, which can't be wiped out with one wide brushstroke.

One thing to note on all of this, is that the UK is on the brink of moving from the current 'Containment' stage, to the second phase which is the 'Delay' phase. This involves "social-distancing" tactics such as closing schools, postponing or cancelling large-scale gatherings and encouraging people to work from home. Much of this is highly likely to happen in the coming days as the rate the virus is spreading is still increasing.

Look at Italy, they had 168 deaths in the last 24 hrs, Iran 54 over the same 24 hrs. It hasn't reached peak yet, so sport will have to fall in line with the above phases of dealing with it whether we, or anyone who runs a football club likes it.

The next 2 phases are "research" and "mitigate". The UK is readying itself to attempt to stop it reaching it's peak until the summer. That's a few months away, so this is likely to be a longer haul than people realise based on figures. If we reach the "mitigate" phase that means you could see Police only being allowed to work on major crimes, and you'll likely see the army on the streets controlling movement. Football will simply have to stop in my view - if we reach these points.

The way it's spreading and the way in which it's dealt with now, have a massive impact on the longevity, and severity of it. The bottom line is that this is not driven by football, nor is it driven by sport or large-scale social gatherings on the whole. It's driven by the phases and the advice of the WHO and others who are trying to control this on a world scale. Unfortunate as it could be, small football clubs going out of business are really not the point in any of this.

Disclaimer: I am not your average toilet roll buying scaremonger, and this is a worst case scenario (probably).

It's incredibly irresponsible in my opinion.

The UN estimates around 25,000 people die EACH DAY from starvation.

As starvation doesn't affect the wealthy, it's not seen as an issue!

Here's hoping anyway... and, in the meantime, it's more of the 20-second shuffles under a hot tap.

I'd love to see a game like that now. Imagine the derby: Schneiderlin jumping in like Sandy Brown on Henderson. Or Sigurdsson sorting out Johnny Morrisey style on Van Dijk.

Yeah... 'Imagine' is about right.

If using water, best it be hot, as mentioned earlier by a TW poster, the virus don't like it hot!

The reality is that NHS ITUs won't be able to cope. NHS critical care runs at an average of 60-70% occupancy anyway so imagine if we get serious cases on the scale of Italy. There won't be enough specialist equipment such as respirators to cope with the needs of the seriously ill.

Be good if fans were banned from events then Sky out of goodwill made Football broadcasting free online for all matches whilst the ban was in place.

On the plus side, the Liverpool victory parade will be cancelled.

It looks obvious to me that the only thing that's going to contain this virus in certain geographical areas is to shut everything down for a while, read PH@37, and the more I think about Madrid moving towards lockdown, but their fans are travelling to this city to watch their team play, then this is why this virus is not currently being contained.

Haven't heard from Mike G, for a few days on TW, and I hope it's because he's got nothing to say (very unusual,) and his family are all still fine stuck in China.

"Atletico Madrid will refund fans who have purchased tickets for Wednesday's Champions League game at Liverpool but decide not to attend.

The move comes after advice given to the club related to the coronavirus outbreak from the Spanish government, which does not recommend travel from Madrid and considers it “irresponsible behaviour to go against this directive."

"In a statement on their official website, Atletico told supporters that Uefa, along with authorities in Liverpool, confirmed the last-16 match – into which Diego Simeone's men carry a 1-0 first-leg advantage – would go ahead as planned and be open to both sets of supporters."

So Uefa and "the authorities in Liverpool" know better than the Spanish government, it appears.

Apparently Uefa are seriously considering putting back the European Championship from this summer to next, thereby allowing extra time for clubs to fulfill their domestic fixtures.

As Guardiola says, this game is all about the fans turning up and watching their teams play, and if that's not possible, then postpone rather than play behind closed doors.

The government health officials are estimating that the peak of the virus in this country will happen within the next 2 weeks, so it seems that, if we don't stop large gatherings now, in a week or 10 days, it might be too late to delay the contagion.

Somebody please start to talk some sense on this!!!!

Dave Abrahams, keep yer distance in the Upper Bullens.

To be honest I'll abide any suggestions that keep this infection down. I think most people will be sensible and use the advice of specialist medical people that helps to get us through this situation. It is very worrying but it is best to stay calm and not get paranoid over this virus.

"I think most people will be sensible and use the advice of specialist medical people that helps to get us through this situation."

The voice of reason, as ever.

Link

As for the game, well, after last Sunday I lost hope. One more trashing coming up, unless we sign Billy Gilmour! Who said you can't run a midfield in the Premier League without being a swole motherlicka? The kid looks like he's 14!

Arsenal played us on the 23rd... should Everton not be self-isolating as well?

If, after the Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid game is over and a couple of cases come up, you can bet that the derby game will behind closed doors.

I think they should be hosed down with bleach on arrival and made to sit in their underpants with their faces covered with royal blue masks. And every time they sing that dirge, they should be showered with ice cold piss.

You can bet your life had the shite won the first leg one-nil at home and tonight's games would have been in Madrid, it would have been played behind closed doors.

The FA are praying Man City slip up and the Premier League gets wrapped up quickly. I know there are other spots near the top or bottom as important, but the FA, media and Sky want their darlings crowned Champions before a possibility of a shutdown.

The authorities in this country are clearly not even slightly serious about trying to contain Covid-19, so why all the fuss about washing hands and self-isolating? What's the point of self-isolating when thousands of people are being encouraged to fly in from a virus hot-spot and mingle with the locals?

Any supporter from Liverpool that stood in the Kop is used to being pissed on. Another thing that makes me laugh is they are asking the supporters to follow personal hygiene when they use the toilets... I guess they don't live in the real world.

That kept me going for much of the day, couldn't wipe the smirk off my face talk about take the edge off the celebrations. :)

You can't even have closed-door games if they're televised. Imagine being in pubs around the city for the derby. Packed pubs are probably a bigger breeding ground for the virus than being at the ground.

"I certainly couldn't watch a derby match in a pub with RS there. I'd be arrested!!"

Time to self-quarantine Rob before the bizzies do!

How they will manage that I have not got a clue.

Tonight the NBA season was suspended indefinitely because a top player, Rudy Gobert of Utah, was diagnosed with the coronavirus.

March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament, will be March Muted because all games will be played in empty arenas.

Tom Hanks came down with the virus in Australia. And my choir has suspended operations, perhaps for the season, because rehearsal was too much of a health risk.

If the Premier League season gets cancelled, I give up.

I noticed Mike G has been a little quiet too. The bruises on my arse are starting to heal without him kicking it. Hopefully he's simply taken to the beach to psych himself up or Monday.

Best wishes to you and yours, Mike, if you are logged on.

I've just been looking at the exponential growth in cases on the WHO website. We all know what a nightmare Italy is going through and their health staff must be exhausted as they have a exponential growth rate in cases of 4 days which is a doubling of cases every 4 days. This means the 10k they have now could be 320,000 in 20 days, lets hope their belated measures interrupt the spread.

This is why we need to lock down now. The UK also has a 4 day growth rate. Spain's cases are doubling every 2 days.

China only slowed the growth rate by locking down which explains the actions of Italy. China now have a growth rate of 30 days, they have some control now and we have a long way to go. If we do not act now we will be where Italy is today with 12,000 cases by the beginning of April. If we are not then we have managed to slow the growth.

Now if I can just get my family home, everything will be hunkydory.

During the game, there was a mini-altercation between Trent Arnold and an Atletico player following a rash tackle by the former, and the usual simulated head rutting ensued between the two. Again well within the one metre parameter.

Mike G, I was curious as to your absence from TW, you have been missed, sorry to hear your wife is still not re-united with you mate. Hopefully sense and sensibility will replace downright panic sooner rather than later.

Do you think it was the Tom Hanks story that pushed Donald Trump over the edge?

That clip is fantastic. I watched last night, extremely informative.

Is it just me, or does anyone feel the data just isn't there to justify this reaction? I'm NOT trying to dismiss this, and yes, I understand the virus can spread and we are closer to the beginning, rather than the end.

It just seems like a sensationalist, wild reaction.

In the end, my thoughts are: even if it is, if it keeps people more healthy and more safe, so be it.

I hope they do it before Monday... we will get battered anyway. So watch the news in the next couple of hours for the government announcement.

I'll raise my odds of no more football this season to 90:10.

Looks like the RS will miss out on winning the Premier League by about 4 days. Oh well, never mind.