Freddie Flintoff has passionately outlined why it would be the wrong thing for football and other major sports events in England to resume in the coming weeks.
Plans are afoot for the Premier League and other competitions in this country to get back under way, despite the likes of Ligue 1 in France and the Eredivisie in Holland being scrapped.
Top-flight football chiefs in particular are keen to complete the 2019/20 season – with huge financial implications if they don’t – and some clubs have already welcomed their players back to training.
But while England cricket legend Flintott sympathises with the likes of Liverpool – who are runaway leaders in the Premier League – he says in the grand scheme of things football, and sport in general, are irrelevant right now.
“Everyone is speculating at the minute. You see the information all day long on the television,” Flintoff said on the Breakfast Show.
“You can see the data coming day-after-day and people are still dying on a daily basis. Over the past few weeks I think like a lot of people you realise what a big void having no sport in your life is.
“I’m actually quite surprised myself at how much it plays a part. It’s got to come to the point that ‘is it actually worth it?’
“I know we keep talking about Liverpool have done this and that, they deserve the title and what about their fans.
“But there’s a bigger problem at stake here, which is far bigger than someone not winning a title or a football season not finishing.
Give COVID-19 the red card
The quicker we work together to stop coronavirus spreading, the sooner we can get back into the pubs, the gyms and stadiums and arenas to see live sport again…
STAY AT HOME. Only leave for the following purposes:
- to shop for basic essentials – only when you really need to
- to do one form of exercise a day – such as a run, walk or cycle, alone or with other people you live with
- for any medical need – for example, to visit a pharmacy or deliver essential supplies to a vulnerable person
- to travel to and from work – but only where this is absolutely necessary
For more info and tips, visit the NHS website.
The government has also issued further detail on what we can do during lockdown.
Everyone should do what they can to stop coronavirus spreading.
“We’re in a pandemic. People are getting seriously ill and dying. The frontline workers would be taken away to attend fixtures. I’m not seeing how it can work.
“I understand people’s frustrations but this is far bigger than sport will ever be. And sport will come back, but just not yet.”
Ally McCoist echoed Flintoff’s views on Wednesday morning’s show, and believes it’s ‘impossible’ for football to make a return anytime soon.
“It means so much to so many people to get them outside again, but as I say we’re all appreciative of the fact that in the grand scheme of things it is a far, far smaller issue,” he remarked.
“There were another 500 plus deaths yesterday in hospitals. These are statistics that are far more important than anything that is happening in any sport anywhere in the world right now.
“It is the football hierarchy’s job to try and build a plan. But in the grand scheme of things when we’re looking at it it seems impossible at this moment in time to get the boys and girls back playing football when there’s so many people still dying and there’s no vaccine for the virus.”