It’s the end of the football season as we know it (and I feel fine, at least at the moment)

I have the feeling that Gary Lineker is right about this.

Here’s why.

Atletico Madrid fans are unable to attend games at their own stadium, nor at upcoming games at Pamplona and Bilbao. But tonight, thousands of them are flying to attend a sell-out Champions League game at Anfield, where Liverpool are attempting to overturn a one goal deficit from the first leg in Spain. Allow me now to quote the editor of the Lancet, Richard Horton, the most prestigious medical journal on the planet:

“The UK government—Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson—claim they are following the science. But that is not true. The evidence is clear. We need urgent implementation of social distancing and closure policies. The government is playing roulette with the public. This is a major error.”

There was very little going on by way of ‘social distancing ‘ in Britain’s sporting world, until today when Manchester City were forced to call off their Premier League game against Arsenal. But I was more horrified by the size of the crowds at Cheltenham today. There must have been 100,000 people squeezed together on public transport, in pubs and bars, in restaurants and at the racing. What are the odds that some of those present were carrying coronavirus?

A friend of mine suggested that the reason certain events were going ahead was because of the money and they are, of course, right. “Tourists are money,” as Johnny Rotten once pointed out. They might also catch a disease that could either kill them, the people they are related to, friends and people they don’t even know. Or, in a worst case scenario, all of them.

I’m going to watch the Liverpool game tonight with a sense of incredulity because I cannot understand how and why it is going ahead. And I am going to watch it as soon as the Bundesliga clash currently on BT Sport between Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Köln is over. There we can see what we will probably see next for there is no crowd present. For now, games are going ahead for the time being, behind closed doors, and we know what the next step will probably be.

Next, I suspect there will be a rash of major postponements and cancellations. The rest of the football season, the rest of the rugby league and union seasons, the cancellation of concerts and festivals and running events in general, including the London Marathon. And if the virus continues to spread, we cannot be sure that the European Football Championships, Wimbledon, Olympics, the summer test matches and the wretched 100 cricket franchise tournament won’t get caught up on it.

We could all be stuck at home soon, all dressed down with nowhere and nothing to do. If you want to do some proper panic buying, I’d suggest buying some books, DVDs and even some music. We’re going to have plenty of time to enjoy it all.