Coronavirus

[John Still]

Our friendly at home to Bath City will be a test event with up to 1000 fans allowed in.

Same with our match against Concord on Tuesday night, we already hosted the West Ham vs Arsenal match last week with 700 attending.

 

[Aberstone]

Seeing rumours on Twitter this morning that Merthyr’s owners have mothballed the club for this season at the absolute last minute.

No idea what this means for their Southern League status if that is true.

 

[John Still]

Who can blame them, this season will be a farce by the looks of things. We will all be lucky if your games not postponed due to a virus within the camp or due to a local lockdown, PPG nonsense will come in again surely.

 

[#Beebot]

Seeing rumours on Twitter this morning that Merthyr’s owners have mothballed the club for this season at the absolute last minute.

No idea what this means for their Southern League status if that is true.

Welsh government still not letting fans in at any level. Happy to keep the pubs open though - I don't understand the obsession with keeping them open across the UK tbh.

But looks like the decision has been made with zero consultation which is disgraceful if true given they are fan owned.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1307301637736796161

 

[rudebwoyben]

Guernsey have been allowed to mothball themselves for a season without any degradation in their status. Maybe Merthyr are counting on that?

 

[#Beebot]

Guernsey have been allowed to mothball themselves for a season without any degradation in their status. Maybe Merthyr are counting on that?

Merthyr have confirmed this is what will happen.

So the only non-league club told they need to play competitive games behind closed doors have had to mothball. Welsh government refused to budge.

Potentially very bad news for Wrexham and if Westminster don't take note that's non-league football over for the season.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Merthyr have confirmed this is what will happen.

So the only non-league club told they need to play competitive games behind closed doors have had to mothball. Welsh government refused to budge.

Potentially very bad news for Wrexham and if Westminster don't take note that's non-league football over for the season.

I see that the Welsh League has started. Have all of the matches been behind closed doors?

 

[#Beebot]

I see that the Welsh League has started. Have all of the matches been behind closed doors?

Yes. I don't know how much longer they can sustain that for. Will surely end very soon.

 

[chief]

Merthyr have confirmed this is what will happen.

So the only non-league club told they need to play competitive games behind closed doors have had to mothball. Welsh government refused to budge.

Potentially very bad news for Wrexham and if Westminster don't take note that's non-league football over for the season.

If our takeover goes through I suspect we'll be okay, but if we remain fan owned it could spell the end for us.

We have projected a £500k loss and I don't even think that takes into account games being played behind closed doors for the whole season. Our constitution prevents us from going into debt so yeah, we're screwed without the takeover so I hope it works out.

 

[EnglishRed]

Welsh government still not letting fans in at any level. Happy to keep the pubs open though - I don't understand the obsession with keeping them open across the UK tbh.

But looks like the decision has been made with zero consultation which is disgraceful if true given they are fan owned.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1307301637736796161

The obsession with keeping pubs open is presumably an indication of how much money the breweries pay to lobby Parliament.

Just a hunch.

 

[GlynTheMilk]

The obsession with keeping pubs open is presumably an indication of how much money the breweries pay to lobby Parliament.

Just a hunch.

I must say, that's an extremely cynical take on the matter, EnglishRed.

 

[#Beebot]

Probably not a good idea to buy a season ticket at this point.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1308112457639047171

 

[Raymondo316]

Looks like the season won't be starting next month then

''It is understood that sports are set to be told that fans will not allowed back from next month and that pilot events will be paused.''

Coronavirus: Sports bodies warn Covid-19 crisis could cause 'lost generation of activity' - BBC Sport

More than 100 sports bodies write to the prime minister to ask for emergency funding amid the Covid-19 crisis, warning of "a lost generation of activity".

www.bbc.com

 

[Chief Rocka]

If we take the above tweet with this news we're all fucked aren't we?

It's mental, mental that we can't attend a sport, played outside, at a massively reduced capacity, with the capability to be well spread out from one and other.

 

[#Beebot]

Looks like the season won't be starting next month then

''It is understood that sports are set to be told that fans will not allowed back from next month and that pilot events will be paused.''

Coronavirus: Sports bodies warn Covid-19 crisis could cause 'lost generation of activity' - BBC Sport

More than 100 sports bodies write to the prime minister to ask for emergency funding amid the Covid-19 crisis, warning of "a lost generation of activity".

www.bbc.com

Looks like game over.

Is there any way the NL can be reclassified as non-elite at this point. It is non-league football after all but we aren't getting the support that the EFL are.

As things stand we'll have football from tiers 1-4 and 7 downwards but nothing at 5 and 6. This is a mess.

 

[#Beebot]

If we take the above tweet with this news we're all fucked aren't we?

It's mental, mental that we can't attend a sport, played outside, at a massively reduced capacity, with the capability to be well spread out from one and other.

All while the pubs and restaurants whine on BBC News about the "devastating" impact that having to close a little early and having to have table service will have on them.

The way sport still gets treated at the top level in this country is straight out of the 1980s.

 

[Raymondo316]

Scenes like this on National TV sure as hell aren't gonna help things.

 

[#Beebot]

Scenes like this on National TV sure as hell aren't gonna help things.

In fairness I doubt this would have any influence on their decision.

 

[MrGloverLover]

As the National League has said the season won't start unless fans are allowed into games but the Government is saying the pilots are being 'paused' and fans won't be allowed in, the season will be inevitably be postponed again.

 

[BornUnderTheElmslie]

The only glimmer of hope is the SAGE advice that transmission of the virus at outdoor sporting events is very low risk. Michael Gove even admitted so on TV this morning. But not appropriate to allow relatively large numbers of people (up to 1000) into football grounds at the very time further restrictions are being applied to the rest of the country and other industries. Hopefully no more than a 2-4 week delay.

 

[Chief Rocka]

The only glimmer of hope is the SAGE advice that transmission of the virus at outdoor sporting events is very low risk. Michael Gove even admitted so on TV this morning. But not appropriate to allow relatively large numbers of people (up to 1000) into football grounds at the very time further restrictions are being applied to the rest of the country and other industries. Hopefully no more than a 2-4 week delay.

Dan Roan of the BBC seems to be suggesting this pause could be several months.

 

[BornUnderTheElmslie]

Dan Roan of the BBC seems to be suggesting this pause could be several months.

It could be, but nobody really knows. I can imagine if cases spike to 50,000 a day then it will be for sure. But if they don't then there aren't many reasonable reasons not to allow fans back in.

 

[DarkSithLord]

We are fucked.

 

[BornUnderTheElmslie]

As a part time club, Stones don't pay players in pre-season, only when League matches start. So this impasse - whilst still damaging - may not be as damaging for us as it could be for others who have significant financial and contractual commitments.

 

[rudebwoyben]

As a part time club, Stones don't pay players in pre-season, only when League matches start. So this impasse - whilst still damaging - may not be as damaging for us as it could be for others who have significant financial and contractual commitments.

Looking at Dagenham in particular...

 

[Clem Fandango]

Difficult not to get political with this, so sod it. Lets be completely honest here, the Government haven't a clue what they are doing. Businesses and individuals alike are completely confused because they amend the rules every other week. Businesses and Clubs are going to go to the wall for something that accounts for a small percentage of daily deaths. For 8 months now, the main input into how the entire UK behaves has been down to Whitty and Vallance and more dodgy modelling by Ferguson. There are loads of well respected, highly qualified professors on this subject that totally disagree with lockdowns, the need to hide away and the steps taken. Remember the original lockdown was to allow NHS capacity to be expanded, this was never needed (hence Nightingale hospitals largely being unused). Yet here we are near the end of September essentially being threatened by our own government again.

France have more cases than us, expected as the forecast is they are around 3 weeks ahead of us (if true), but have had stadiums open to 5,000 for some weeks now. They are likely to increase this. Germany have had supporters back -Werder Bremen and Leipzig had 20% of their capacity (thats 8,500). Poland have had supporters back. Feyenoord in Holland had 13,000 last week! Most places in Europe are operating, currently, at 20-25% total capacity of the stadium. Whilst not ideal, it's at least reasonable.

It's utterly ridiculous that we can't meet our own family if it exceeds 6 people but Boris and 29 of his other chums can go out shooting grouse. I think that says everything we need to know about this Government.

Worst thing is I, like I'm sure many others on here as they rinsed the election, voted for this complete shower.

 

[rudebwoyben]

Difficult not to get political with this, so sod it. Lets be completely honest here, the Government haven't a clue what they are doing. Businesses and individuals alike are completely confused because they amend the rules every other week. Businesses and Clubs are going to go to the wall for something that accounts for a small percentage of daily deaths. For 8 months now, the main input into how the entire UK behaves has been down to Whitty and Vallance and more dodgy modelling by Ferguson. There are loads of well respected, highly qualified professors on this subject that totally disagree with lockdowns, the need to hide away and the steps taken. Remember the original lockdown was to allow NHS capacity to be expanded, this was never needed (hence Nightingale hospitals largely being unused). Yet here we are near the end of September essentially being threatened by our own government again.

France have more cases than us, expected as the forecast is they are around 3 weeks ahead of us (if true), but have had stadiums open to 5,000 for some weeks now. They are likely to increase this. Germany have had supporters back -Werder Bremen and Leipzig had 20% of their capacity (thats 8,500). Poland have had supporters back. Feyenoord in Holland had 13,000 last week! Most places in Europe are operating, currently, at 20-25% total capacity of the stadium. Whilst not ideal, it's at least reasonable.

It's utterly ridiculous that we can't meet our own family if it exceeds 6 people but Boris and 29 of his other chums can go out shooting grouse. I think that says everything we need to know about this Government.

Worst thing is I, like I'm sure many others on here as they rinsed the election, voted for this complete shower.

I agree with most of this post but I find the post-election buyers’ remorse very weird. It was very clear pre-election that giving Pifflewaffle a constitutional blank cheque for 5 years would be disastrous for the country.

 

[John Still]

Looking at Dagenham in particular...

Why us? It applies to every full time club at our level. We have signed one player who will be on silly wages the rest are mediocre at best. Unless our owners pull the plug we will be fine, the main man is worth 4 billion dollars.

 

[#Beebot]

Difficult not to get political with this, so sod it. Lets be completely honest here, the Government haven't a clue what they are doing. Businesses and individuals alike are completely confused because they amend the rules every other week. Businesses and Clubs are going to go to the wall for something that accounts for a small percentage of daily deaths. For 8 months now, the main input into how the entire UK behaves has been down to Whitty and Vallance and more dodgy modelling by Ferguson. There are loads of well respected, highly qualified professors on this subject that totally disagree with lockdowns, the need to hide away and the steps taken. Remember the original lockdown was to allow NHS capacity to be expanded, this was never needed (hence Nightingale hospitals largely being unused). Yet here we are near the end of September essentially being threatened by our own government again.

France have more cases than us, expected as the forecast is they are around 3 weeks ahead of us (if true), but have had stadiums open to 5,000 for some weeks now. They are likely to increase this. Germany have had supporters back -Werder Bremen and Leipzig had 20% of their capacity (thats 8,500). Poland have had supporters back. Feyenoord in Holland had 13,000 last week! Most places in Europe are operating, currently, at 20-25% total capacity of the stadium. Whilst not ideal, it's at least reasonable.

It's utterly ridiculous that we can't meet our own family if it exceeds 6 people but Boris and 29 of his other chums can go out shooting grouse. I think that says everything we need to know about this Government.

Worst thing is I, like I'm sure many others on here as they rinsed the election, voted for this complete shower.

The government's use of behavioural psychology to model outcomes has been very iffy throughout the whole pandemic. It was a disaster in the couple of weeks before lockdown, when Boris spent weeks telling people not to do stuff while putting nothing in law tp stop them from doing so.

I'm amazed they're going down that route again. Hancock's "this is the public's fault not ours" gaslighting is horrendous at this point.

 

[chief]

Why us? It applies to every full time club at our level. We have signed one player who will be on silly wages the rest are mediocre at best. Unless our owners pull the plug we will be fine, the main man is worth 4 billion dollars.

Bloody hell, Tim Howard's done well for himself!