It’s a strange old time for fans of sport at the moment. The vast majority of competitions across the globe have been cancelled or suspended as people seek to look after themselves, and understandably friends and family, and it’s not just sport that has been hit with music festivals and even a good old trip to the local public house coming off the calendar.
In amongst the doom and concern, there are plenty of heartwarming stories with how people are pulling together and going the extra mile to entertain and look after people in their local areas, but there are still plenty of ways to keep yourselves occupied and although there isn’t much of a betting fixture list to go off at this moment in time, there are numerous ‘casino’ type games to give you a small fix.
10cric is unfortunately only available to people in India but it’s a good guide as to what type of games are available and I’m pretty sure people will find something they fancy to help while away some time, whether that be slot based games or the more traditional Blackjack or Roulette styles.
With ongoing discussions as to what will happen with competitions, such as the 2019/20 football season, and the complications there of potentially voiding the year given how few games remain, deciding on titles, European qualification and promotion or relegation, undoubtedly the simplest solution will be to lift the pause on matches when things improve.
Most of sport will face the same challenges on that topic, especially when you look ahead to the ‘next’ campaigns, and whilst playing the season out behind closed doors and without fans, would certainly ruin the magic of games as we know it, it would seem to be the most sensible way forward purely from a logistic point of view of bringing paused competitions to a real end without having to invent some kind of fudge system in an attempt to be fair to all – especially given the finances involved for many.
Specifically for football, the recent UEFA decision to postpone the European Championships for 12 months will certainly help as it does buy significant time over the summer for games to resume, without overloading the players and asking them to play an unfair number of games without sufficient recovery time in between.
Other sports can naturally just extend their own seasons to buy that extra wriggle room for matches to commence once again, and there’s always the possibility of the following campaigns starting a little bit later than they otherwise normally would, to add further breathing room.
As the old saying goes, if there’s a will, there’s a way, and the boffins at the various associations will already be pouring over the plethora of options and compromises available to them as each sport naturally has its own requirements.
For wider sport lovers, there are still plenty of other decisions to be made such as what happens to this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo with the International Olympic Committee announcing this weekend that they have given themselves a four week deadline to come to a decision, but it would seem to make sense for them to delay as well. There’s even the coming NFL season to factor in, as it’s as yet unknown if that will kick off in September as originally planned.
Whatever the future of sport holds in the coming months, there are understandably bigger things to be concerned about, but plenty will take some solace from the more community minded news stories that we’ve seen in recent weeks from both clubs and individual sports persons themselves.
Whether it’s Wembley Stadium turning blue each night as a small ‘pick me up’ for the tireless work of nurses, doctors and other in the National Health Service, or football clubs reacting to the postponement by donating prepared food to homeless shelters, or even the more random, but thoughtful individual efforts, like Belgian international centre half Toby Alderweireld distributing tablets to hospitals and nursing homes so families can continue to stay in touch – it just shows what can be achieved, even in money dominated industries, when people are sensible, thoughtful and use the power and reach they have, for a far greater good.
Fans are often ‘proud’ of sportsmen, women and clubs themselves, owing to their achievements, titles or successes, but in these strange times, we can also be proud of them for showing they are human, and that they can pull together regardless of any colour or rivalry.