Is The End Of June Football’s Biggest Problem As It Shifts Its Goalposts?

This week’s announcement from the Premier League, the Football Association and the EFL that professional football in England will be further postponed until 30 April at the earliest was hardly a surprise amidst unprecedented circumstances.

As the coronavirus crisis worsens in Britain forcing Boris Johnson’s government to close schools and hospitality premises, all the while stressing the importance of social distancing the notion of fixtures being played in the immediate future – even behind closed doors – is fanciful in the extreme at such a heightened time.

It made sense therefore to extend their pausing of the 2019/20 campaign with the end of April acting as a placeholder until the hope is that some strands of clarity begin to emerge from the present climate of uncertainty.

If the buying of time from the sport’s governing bodies was widely viewed as a sensible measure the second part of their joint statement was similarly greeted with mostly approval. It is the firm intention of the authorities to conclude this season come what may, with no cut-off date in place and the reasons for doing this are sound and multifarious. As Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp pointed out immediately following the development:  

“I feel that we have to fulfill the fixtures somehow if possible. Now, nine games to play, if you don’t and you say as it stands give Liverpool the league title and you then relegate Bournemouth, Norwich and Aston Villa, could you imagine the litigations that is going to cause? It’s going to cause chaos.”

There is also the not insubstantial matter of a very real threat of Premier League clubs being fined £750 million ($874 million) by broadcasters should they fail to fulfill their obligation of completing a full season.

In order to make this completion feasible the FA’s board have taken the extraordinary step of sanctioning a relaxation of a long-standing regulation that has 1 June as the standard international finish date of any given season while UEFA’s decision to postpone this summer’s Euro Championships offers them some valuable breathing space. Yet still, from a logistical standpoint it feels that everything remains against English football wrapping up proceedings as its D-Day approaches.

What is its D-Day? If the significance of 1 June was written off by a few ayes and a stroke of a pen that is nothing to the date of 30 June, one that has long been considered sacrosanct. In European football it is the changing of the calendar, the date when player’s contracts expire or become active; the date too there-after when sponsorship typically begins or renews, a commercial consideration that includes kit suppliers. Indeed so problematic would it be for a season to over-run past this point that for all of UEFA’s assistance this week to facilitate the conclusion of 55 national leagues specific mention was made of it:

‘The resolution features a commitment to complete all domestic and European club competitions by the end of the current sporting season, i.e. 30 June 2020 at the latest.”

In England the likelihood of this being achieved however is slight with 92 Premier League fixtures still to be played along with European commitments for some and all within a tight window that also requires players to begin ‘proper’ training beyond their current individual programs.

Of far more substantial concern than the restrictive time-frame is that in the very same month these fixtures are – provisionally at least – being scheduled to take place it is expected that the coronavirus will hit a peak in the UK and the necessity for police and medical services to be present at games, even when played behind closed doors, would almost certainly prompt public outrage. Then there are the player’s feelings to factor in. Will they be willing to perform in such an intensified environment, assuming of course that somehow each and every one of them stays unaffected by the virus?

Meanwhile, 8 August looms, the beginning of a new campaign and if that can easily be put back a revision of the processes reserved for the end of June is a far more complicated affair.

Aware of this Liverpool are already reportedly exploring the possibility of changing their kit manufacturer effectively two thirds through a campaign, with their present deal with New Balance set to imminently end and a new supplier in Nike primed to expensively promote their association with the Reds this summer. It is an event that in usual circumstances would be forbidden but as previously stated we are already way past usual circumstances.  

Regarding player’s contracts FIFA are working closely with UEFA to find a way of relaxing normal player registration rules should individual’s contracts need to be extended into July. Even when viewed optimistically though, this brings forth an analogy of a traffic light system failing at a busy intersection, only the drivers are highly prized; some aggrieved; others litigious.

For these reasons and many more Southampton’s chief executive Martin Semmens said with clear understatement this week:

“We hope to get the league done by the end of June. As soon as you go past that date, there are legal challenges.”

Referring to UEFA’s dramatic postponement of Euro 2020 its president Aleksander Ceferin said on Wednesday: “This is a reset of world football”. In reality we’re only just getting started.