General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

Martin Lipton said on radio this morning they can’t extend the season by a week as there is a contractual arrangement to play season between point a and b.

It’s some farce now. The London matches will be postponed but as of today all football is now allowed I heard driving home

Plus they have to factor in the health and safety of Police officers and adhere to their equivalent to the Organisation of Working Time Act. Officers will need to travel to London and that will take time.

It's a mess no matter what way you look at it. The wrong call was made to cancel last weekend's matches and the PL know that now.

Yeah this is it really.

Old Trafford is a 75,000 capacity stadium with a lot of people travelling for it to support both clubs. Also it's a fixture that has a lot of hatred invoked with some some violent clashes in the last year or two. Dedicated travel and extra policing would be needed for this fixture.

The Brentford stadium only holds around 17k people, so a lot less people involved. There's no animosity between the clubs so you wouldn't expect any voilent clashes. Also a lot of of the supporters would be arriving via train / tube lines so would blend in with the day to day London travel.

Fr Tod is correct (to an extent) in that teams can have more multiple pairings. e.g., if Everton had been relegated last season they'd obviously still be home/away paired with Liverpool FC, but Liverpool FC would also be paired with another EPL team.

For West Ham the primary security pairing was usually Dagenham Redbridge and secondary pairing of Leyton Orient (secondary pairing is avoiding sending both to the same away city, or having high-profile home matches when the other is also home). Neither Orient nor Dagenham spend much time is the same division as West Ham, so West Ham are also paired with another EPL London club for EPL fixture purposes. And finally Southend and West Ham is a semi-official pairing, with the former requesting to have as few as possible clashes as it adversely affects their attendance/finances.

This obviously all has a knock-on effect through the entire fixture list, which is why it's a complicated old process.

It's not just people. This funeral could use up every safety barrier in the city. Also portaloos and that kinda thing.

The fans will still be there, but now with no football stadium to go to. It might cause some issues in Naples, but especially moreso in Glasgow given the last minute nature of it. The fans will still travel.

I presume this is all done by software across the leagues but it would be interesting to see the pairing or multiple rules. I was in London a couple of weeks ago Arsenal were at home to Villa and West Ham were at home to Tottenham, fans from all teams were at Stratford tube station

Liverpool V Spurs is Sunday Nov 6th now.

https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/tottenham-v-liverpool-rescheduled

I’m fairness that’s a great idea. He’s going to be a breath of fresh air. European Super League here we come. At least he doesn’t sugar coat the fact that it’s all about the bottom line. He’ll be a god send to the premier league ltd in that regard as they are leaving money on the table at the moment and he knows how to ensure that no money is left on the table. It will be better for all clubs in the long run. The young fans don’t give a toss about history all they want is to be entertained and watch the best v the best every week. The game is a product like any other and needs to be improved to expand and grow (revenues). I for one welcome our new American overlords.

Bayern fans making the point loud and clear:

And it didn’t even affect them directly. They’re 100% on the mark here though.

All-Star game will never happen. Clubs won't want to release their players to play in a 'friendly' in which they could get injured. You then also have the politcal nightmare for a team like United when they don't get any players on the North team, and it is 6/5 Liverpool/City players in some order. They won't go for it.

Have wondered if they could have a more involved awards ceremony and weekend or event.

Have a televised awards show with HoF induction (a bit meh as it is to be fair) but on the day before do an exhibition tournament where players compete in specific disciplines. Free Kick shootouts. Sprint Race. Dribble Race - probably some other events smarter people could think of to have players compete agasint each other in. Hell, United and Liverpool players used to have SOCOM private games against each other, get some CoD going or something. Wonder if you could have a fusal or 5 aside tpe tournament too - would need to be something at (A) massively promotes skill and (B) doesn't involve actual tackling (to try and avoid injuries) - something similar to the old Masters League football that used to go on.