Gary Sweet believes football will be needed to help ‘patch society back together’ after the Coronavirus pandemic, but that the game risks falling apart if the season is not completed.
The season has been extended indefinitely, and there are proposals to complete the campaign within 56 days, when it’s safe to do so, with finishing the season behind closed doors another possible option.
Last night the government confirmed that the nationwide lockdown, now in its fourth week, will be extended for another three weeks, while in football, players will not return to training until May 16 at the earliest.
Sweet has previously admitted that the shutdown of the game will see some clubs “go to the wall” and this week admitted: “It is a conversation that is taking place between football clubs at the moment, how do we protect football in all of this as the one thing you’ve got to think about, as I said this last time, football is the most important unimportant thing.
“When we get back to a sense of normality, it’s products like football, it’s that kind of entertainment that’s going to patch society back together, so it is vitally important that we do try and get this season complete for those reasons, but not at a compromise or detriment to people’s health or the resources of the NHS.”
While the Luton Town chief executive recognises that people and safety are more important than the game – saying previously that footballers must not come before NHS workers when it comes to testing – he admits there is a “moral dilemma” when thinking about the repercussions for football of not finishing the current campaign.
“Ultimately, if you close this season and do not conclude it, then there are severe impacts on the game of football itself,” he said, adding: “You do risk whether the game of football can be repatched, and that is from player contracts, through to broadcast contracts, sponsorship contracts.
“Almost every single contract we may well have, not as a club, but as football, it relies on the season finishing, so there has to be a will within football to get this season finished, for that reason
“However, football doesn’t come before society. Society and the health and safety of people, it has to come first, always, clearly, even if we, as a society, risk losing football.”
