Aside from all the pro/con arguments about the sense of bringing back a version of football in the current environment, and I've made my views pretty clear, my prediction is that this won't happen. Or if is begins, it sure as shit won't last for long.
I listened to the daily fairy tale conference led by the PM yesterday. Even with their, frankly, awful graphics and five test bollocks, I was puzzled. It just didn't ring true to some stories that have been appearing over the last few days. The two goons either side of the PM (Whitty and Valance) appeared to be standing there with electronic shock paraphernalia attached to their nethers. They are either incompetent or incapacitated.
So I did some of my own research and found the Centre for Mathemetical Modelling of Infectious Diseases very helpful.
https://cmmid.github.io/topics/covid19/ The evidence clearly shows that the reproduction of infection is now rising again. Just after the VE Day Bank Holiday, we seemed to be getting there but the last couple of weeks conclusively demonstrate that we've gone backwards again. Officially, 789 people have died over the last 48 hours. Unofficially, this is likely to be nearer to 1,200. These numbers are going up, not down.
So with the confusion of what is/isn't allowed, the good weather, the general frustration, all meaning that the strictness of the lockdown is waning, I can only see some pretty awful increases over the coming weeks. Whereas sensible countries entered lockdown earlier and harder and are now able to come out of lockdowns with some confidence, we've been fecking awful every step of the way. Once again, this will cost a lot more lives.
While I'm not remotely interested in football coming back in this context, I do have some sympathy for those that do. However, as they put out TV schedules and start talking about looking forward to matches, I really can't help but think that this is wilfully ignorant of what is going on in our country. Football cannot isolate itself from wider society sufficiently to get away with this. I really don't think it's going to work.
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