Ian Hart: Top flight football in this country is morally bankrupt

Without wishing to appear biased, I would in some ways exclude Brighton from my previous statement, the way the club has behaved during the crisis is admirable.

Season ticket payment holidays, significant wage reductions from senior members of staff and for me the thing that will remain with me for a long, long time, every registered supporter over the age of 70 has received at least one phone call from the club – with this initiative to continue throughout the crisis.

Tactics, performances and personalities go out of the window, that one action by the club continues to make me proud to have supported Brighton and Hove Albion for 47 years this month.

However, in Premier League terms the Albion are very much amongst the office juniors, and I fully understand whilst they take part in 20 strong conference calls and I’ve no doubt their voice is heard, we all know which clubs ultimately call the shots.

For the Genie was out of the bottle last week with the revelation that if the Premier League is voided now, the 20 clubs will collectively lose close to £1bn in lost revenue and repaid monies to broadcasters in the UK and around the globe.

As I write this column on Monday morning, nearly 5,000 good people have lost their lives to Covid 19 and the elected leader of this nation is seriously ill with the virus in hospital.

So which of the two previous paragraphs is more significant? It’s a no brainer, yet football appears to be fiddling whilst Rome burns. Add to that super rich owners at Liverpool, Spurs and

Newcastle, the first two being billionaires, allegedly working our tax system by furloughing all their non playing members of staff, with the public purse picking up 80 per cent of the wages.

As an aside, the billionaire owners of Manchester City have elected to continue paying their staff in full until further notice.

Quite simply top flight football in this country is morally bankrupt, the game of the working classes is anything but that now.

Voiding the season is the least they can do now, if awarding Liverpool the title is a caveat to that, fair enough. No relegation, it’s hard on West Brom, Leeds and the chasing pack in the

Championship, but in each and every one of those towns or cities, people are dying, it’s way beyond football now.

And then press reset, players have made hay whilst the sun shines and good on them, but nothing lasts forever.

Basically start again, with clubs cutting their cloth accordingly, budgeting correctly from top to bottom, seat prices at a level that makes them accessible for fans right across the demographic.

Yes, it will mean that top end players won’t get paid £200,000, £300,000 and £400,000 a week, but if it saves our game that’s how it has to be.

As much we all want this horrible virus to go away, it’s not going to be overnight, and with Uefa not stating that all club football has to be finished by August, the ongoing situation might leave the PL with a fait accompli and voiding 19/20 is the only option.

And might I add both a sensible and moral option. Take care and stay safe, Harty.

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