Football won’t return by the end of next month, that is the view of Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet.
Matches have now been suspended for the last fortnight due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with the deadline to return already extended from April 3 to April 30, at the earliest.
Members of the EFL, Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) met yesterday, but no decisions were taken beyond monitoring the fast developing crisis, which has seen people told to stay home to save lives.
There was, however, a warning that ‘difficult decisions will have to be taken in order to mitigate the economic impact of the current suspension of professional football in England.’
Sweet has previously spoken of the financial implications of football clubs not earning any income from match-day revenue and he doesn’t expect that will change in the next month.
“I don’t really see the April 30 being a realistic schedule to return at all. I think that was just a placeholder, if I’m honest. I don’t think that was really ever the intention,” said the Town chief, speaking before yesterdays meeting.
“It’s just a case of putting things back, bearing in mind that the Football League and the Premier League and the FA will need some time to restructure some of those rules to make sure that the football season can go beyond the first of June, which currently it can’t in normal rules.
“And bearing in mind that the Football League is made up of 72 members, it’s not an executive body that makes the decision, it’s the football clubs who make the decisions. So how do football clubs vote on that without meeting?
“There are quite a few things that have to be done at the moment just to make sure that the clubs are engaged and can take part in those discussions.”
Sweet believes Luton will emerge from the pandemic stronger than some of their rivals, with many in the Championship already in debt.
He added: “We’ve got to look at the long-term prospects of coronavirus having an impact on us, it’s not going to go away in April or May. It’s going to have a much more long-term effect on the football club and the football business.
“So, in terms of the calendar, I’ll have to caveat that by saying much of the calendar is really ruled by UEFA and FIFA and international fixtures that leagues have to fit around. But I think there has to be some flexibility into next season, personally.
“I think that’s the first thing, to enable it to maybe start late and ensure that fixtures are put into that calendar to make sure that we can play each other twice, with a potential break in the winter.
“That is one of the first things, and I think you’ve got to look a little bit more forward than that, and then you can see the feasibility of when we can actually complete this season. And I do believe that we should try and complete this season.
“Clearly we don’t want to risk anybody’s health or safety, and that won’t be done certainly from Luton Town’s point of view but within that framework, we really have to complete the season whenever we possibly can.
“Whilst it’s really disappointing for supporters, even if that is behind closed doors – and a lot of the focus and attention on that at the moment is how we can get those game distributed remotely via iFollow or any other means to those supporters.
“But it surely must be better to play those games behind closed doors when we see that that is safe to do so, rather than not play them at all if we cancel the season. It’s a challenge.”
But with the country in lockdown as confirmed Covid-19 cases rise, Sweet said of football: “At the moment it is really the farthest thing from my mind. It might surprise people if I say that my main consideration at the moment is, actually it’s really inconsequential where Luton finish or what league we’re in next year – this is about keeping football intact.
“It’s first of all the safety of our public, our communities, of the NHS workers and everybody out there, and secondly making sure that the business of football, the industry, it remains intact, so we can actually come back and play games at some point.
“We are confident that down the line we will get this season finish and we will get the next season finished. But in terms of cancellation of this season, is that a possibility, yes. There is a great deal of sense to that too, in order to wipe the slate clean, let’s move onto next season, I totally get the argument, but the priority must be to keep this season intact.”
