SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, (THEWILL) – Former Chairman of Crystal Palace FC, Simon Jordan and former Tottenham winger Chris Waddle have both called for the cancellation of the 2019/2020 Season of the English Football Leagues.
Both calls followed increasing cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. According to UK Health Secretary, cases of COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 21,678 already in the UK.
While Mr. Jordan spoke on TalkSPORT during an interview session, Waddle spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday.
According to Jordan; “I think we are in a situation where the best case scenario in my view is that we lose the season.
“Liverpool aren’t champions, Leeds aren’t promoted, Aston Villa aren’t relegated, Norwich aren’t relegated. We are really into that territory now.
“As much as I don’t want to be a doomsday merchant, we have got a disease we don’t have a vaccine for, while this isn’t a problem in everyone’s workplace, everyone isn’t spitting and kicking each other as footballers do.
“You cannot have a situation where a global sport of this magnitude has a player who becomes infected, which is an absolute inevitability because they are going to get infected until we find a vaccine.
“And what happens then, corporate manslaughter?” Jordan concluded.
In the views of Waddle; “Personally, I think they should pull the plug on all the leagues and start again in August.
“The Dutch have said they are finishing their league and the French have said they are finishing their league.
“This is where the trouble starts now. Just an example, Paris, are still the best team in France, but they haven’t been as good this year as in previous years.
“But say they lost two in a row, which they could do. Marseille then go on a run and catch them. Same with bottom of the league. We could make that up with the 10 or nine games left.
“I just think it is an unbelievable season and no one saw this coming and me personally I think all the leagues should do like Holland and say ‘we are stopping it’.”
If their assertions were anything to go by, Liverpool may end the year once again without the Premier League haven waited for over 30 years to win it.
The Royal Dutch Football Association is the first soccer federation to cancel leagues in Europe due to the coronavirus.
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