Just as it seems that there is to be a race to get the English football leagues done and dusted as quickly as possible, and in whatever format that would take, former England manager and Liverpool fan, Sven Goran Eriksson, has reminded everyone what’s truly important.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, and reported by the Daily Express, Eriksson suggested that human life, rather than the game of football, had to be paramount in everyone’s thinking.
“I’m a Liverpool fan so you want me to say forget the season? Should be very, very hard,” he said.
“[…] What’s going to happen? I don’t know but one thing must be sure, we can’t risk life trying to finish the leagues and Champions League. We can’t do that.
“[…] If we want to start the leagues it must be secure, we can’t risk people getting sick, dying just to play football. Football is important, football is my life, I love it but life is more important than football.”
In many respects, it’s incredibly sad that he has had to come out and put across such an argument. With the coronavirus pandemic still front and centre across the world, the state of play with regards to football shouldn’t even be a concern.
Of course, competitions will need to get back to a ‘new normal’ at some point, and the fact that the leagues are losing money clearly isn’t ideal for the stakeholders and maybe for the longer term integrity of the game. It’s therefore right that discussions need to be had.
However, to keep labouring the point at this time of when teams can be crowned champions or if certain others will go down or up, is in poor taste at best.