Having read another article about a football club wanting the 2019/2020 season voided, you cannot help but notice those who want the season concluded now are those who have most to gain from it being voided.
Hull City join the likes of Huddersfield Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley from the Championship who apparently have voiced concerns to the EFL about restarting and concluding this season.
Call me a cynic, but the clubs taking this stance are on such a poor run of form and at real risk of relegation. Should the season be voided there is a real opportunity to call off relegation and promotion, ultimately helping those named clubs.
In the Premier League, it is of no surprise that the likes of Watford, West Ham and Brighton are opponents of playing at neutral venues and of the idea of completing the season. Once again, these sides are in real danger of relegation and losing out on millions of pounds in revenue next season.
In time we will look back on this issue in football and it will only reaffirm many supporters’ feelings that money makes the world go around, and it’s money that the football clubs and authorities are interested in.
Players, staff and supporters’ welfare have long been way down the list of priorities of the football authorities and during this current time that is clear for all to see.
Just like when we noticed which shops were screwing their loyal customers by charging extortionate amounts for items sold out in supermarkets during the panic buying, we will remember those who were only interested in their own agendas. We will remember Liverpool and Tottenham’s decisions to furlough staff and the subsequent u-turn on events once they were rightly outed.
As time has gone on, more and more football fans have come round to the idea of voiding the season. Morally it appears the right thing to do. Leagues around Europe, including Scotland, have made the decision to finalise their respective campaigns, with some declaring winners, promotion and relegation, and others voiding it all together.
Even League Two and more than likely League One will decide to call it a day and work towards next season when it is safe to do so. Yet the top two leagues in English football – the ones where the cash prizes are bigger – are slowly tearing themselves apart, desperately trying to finalise the season, not for the glory, but for the money. And it stinks.
By Ian Hope, editor of football blog halftimepie.co.uk. Check them out on Twitter and Facebook.