Seasons over.

[Mince n Tatties]

Football as we know it,will I doubt ever be the same.
The vultures,venture capalist firms are again circling to get involved in a European Super League,and the clubs they want are the ones with the biggest followings world wide,so they can make tidy sums out of all the televised games.
The elite will get bigger,and the rest want be cared about...

[Oakeshott]

"So it's not really football I have a passion for, it's Fulham F C."

Yes, same here.

[Burt]

The reality is that until a vaccination is made available (we are months away from that) then life is going to be stop-start in nature and the likelihood that mass participation sport will get underway again is quite remote.

It is interesting to note that countries who eased back on lockdown measures like Japan, S Korea and Germany are experiencing increases in the reproduction rate of the virus, indeed Hokkaido prefecture has had a "second wave" and is back under a state of emergency.

[Berserker]

My theory is that we will play behind close doors for the rest of the year and be allowed to go to matches Jan onwards in 2021.
A type of coronavirus, this one or another mutation isn't going to go away any time soon. Therefore we can't stay on lockdown forever for all sorts of reasons, a vaccine will take along time to devise, test and circulate, so a cure maybe quicker, especially using existing drugs and amending. Of cause we need both but one might be before the other to allow us to manage the situation


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[Russianrob]

This present world crisis will so change football that it will be possible to make a distinction to what kind of Fulham supporter you are.Pre- crisis Fulham supporter or post crisis.There is already some kind of distinction between Fulham supporters.1)The loyal diehards 2) Armchair supporters.Living in Russia l am in the second category.

[Southcoastffc]

Woolly, well said and I share many of your frustrations with the state of the game and especially at the top level.  If I can mention one other specific point; I detest the international committees of self-serving and often openly corrupt bureaucrats who run the game at the top level. I think that over the years and with only a handful of honourable exceptions, they have done as much as anything or anyone to destroy the integrity of the sport.

My problem is that I love FFC, I love the feeling I get as I walk down the towpath from Hammersmith and see the floodlights already twinkling over the ground, I love the sense of history as I walk through those narrow turnstiles, I love the anticipation as our players prepare to jog out onto the pitch, I love it that we are so often seen as plucky underdogs and just occasionally surprise the watching world.

So it's not really football I have a passion for, it's Fulham F C.

:plus one:

[alfie]

I do not expect people to agree with me, I feel Football has over rated itself, let's face it, it is no longer the game it was. One thing is for sure it is a time to reflect.
Too much gamesmanship or to put it a little more bluntly. Cheating, diving, pretending to be injured or exaggerating an injury, many players have no shame these day. The clubs with the most money will win the majority of trophies in the EPL.
Players and coaches trying to get opponents sent off and booked, money or should I say the unfair way it is distributed is killing the game, along with agents and sky. Combined they are destroying it within, couple that with  officials be it referees or linos who bottle it, and clearly favour the big clubs, a pessimist would claim that the corruption has gone too far.
Further down the pyramid the football is far more worth watching if we can still enjoy football.
Before the lockdown I was out every single Sunday morning watching or refereeing a grass roots football match and enjoyed it otherwise I would not bother. So I know as much as the next bloke in the pub about football.
But having said that I can live without it.
This can be a wake up call for players who have lived in a bubble and been indulged by sky tv and the rest for far too long.
In fact it's a wake up call for everyone in different ways, yes the football bubble has burst as it always was going to do, it has just been quicker that expected.
So before if and when it returns to something near normality. In the top flight It needs to use this time to realise it needs to clean its act up if it wants to return anywhere near the spectator sport it once was.
What with VAR and players having far too much power and entitlement it is no longer pure theatre as we once knew it, add the fact that there are hardly any real characters in the game any more.
Brian Clough, Bob Paisley, Bobby Robson, Billy Shankley, Bill Nicholson, Ron Saunders, Jim Smith, Malcolm Allison, and many more would be turning in their graves if they saw where we are.
In a funny old way it's has been a breath of fresh air not to have to turn on the TV and listen to absolute drivel by pundits and commentators alike favouring or talking about Liverpool, United, City, Arsenal, Chelsea as though no one else exists, jobs for the boys all with their snouts in the trough.
I realise I do not miss it like I thought I would.
Yet I have found I miss rugby and cricket more, perhaps it's because I do not expect to see anywhere near as much cheating in the way I do at football.
Also how many football supporters have died including S/T holders caused by this pandemic never to return to watch their clubs again.
I cannot see an imminent return to the domestic game, and if some people only live for football, especially these days, then it is time to have a good look at themselves because it may be a significant part of their lives, but It shouldnt be the be all and end all.

I agree I am missing rugby/cricket a lot more than football, I live about a 1000 or so metres from the Cottage, and at this moment in time it's just not that important to me.
Hopefully that will change in due course.

[Statto]

Whatever, football is still the most popular sport  nationally,and its return is an indicator that the country is able to return to some kind of normal life - that this will be possible, which will help counter the adverse  effects of this situation on people's mental health.

Have to agree with this. The most watched TV programme in 2020 so far has been BoJo's lockdown announcement on 23 March, with 14.6 million viewers. Slightly less than the number of people who watched the 2014 World Cup Final (Germany v Argentina, 15m) and much less than the number who watched England v Croatia in the 2018 World Cup (20.7m). Those two World Cup matches were both the most watched broadcasts in the UK in those years. We clearly care a lot about football in this country, arguably more than we do about coronavirus.

[Statto]

BBC now beginning to drip feed the detail coming out of government on exiting the lockdown...

Just confirmed professional sports behind closed doors are proposed to be included in stage 2 (the measures starting 1 June, if all goes well)