The coronavirus pandemic has brought all of world football down for the foreseeable future. The Premier League announced suspension of play until April 30, and at that point they will re-evaluate again. That said, there is still plenty of interesting Manchester United related news and notes to go over.
Let’s take a look at some of the news items trending in cyberspace right now during these very strange days and extremely uncertain times. (For today’s MUFC transfer rumors, go here) We start with club legend Rio Ferdinand, not wanting to give Liverpool their due. He is in favor of the season just being wiped out, and the Merseyside club then having to endure their title drought to at least 30 years.
There had been previous reports which indicated should the season be abandoned, Liverpool would be awarded the title.
The most up to date reports indicate that this Premier League season will be finished, no matter how delayed, before the next one starts up again.
“I just think the Premier League should be void. Void it,” Ferdinand said on Instagram.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of Liverpool fans going: ‘oh, Rio, just because you used to play for Man United.’
“I just don’t see a way that can be done where health isn’t compromised. Simple as that. All this behind closed doors business — you’re still going to have players there, are the players not part of society?”
“There are players who are going to go down with the illness who might not have recovered, or catch it from someone then it spreads to other players. It won’t be fair, it’s not a level playing field. I just don’t feel it’s right.”
Wayne Rooney disagrees, as he believes the Reds have earned it. Also disagreeing is another club legend, Gary Neville.
“I don’t believe there needs to be a decision made on these types of things,” said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“My instinct is to try and complete the season because I think that there are obviously things at stake for all teams.
“The Olympics should happen at the earliest possible point, when it can happen safely. The European Championships has been moved to next year, it’s not been cancelled, it’s been postponed.”
Yes, in midday on Monday, news broke that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo had been postponed until next summer.
Elsewhere, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had plans for military style training, but they got scrapped due to COVID19 concerns. Stretty News has more over at this link.
Finally, watch the movie clip in the tweet below:
#ManchesterUnited connection to the end of the world @MUFChicago
At the beginning of the apocalyptic "The Day After Tomorrow," guy monitoring ocean temperatures at Scotland's Hedland Climate Research Center is distracted by watching United beating Celtic 3-1 in UCL action pic.twitter.com/GwIY4AMyDU— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) March 24, 2020
Later in the 2004 film, when the 3 climatologists realize the end is near, they do a final toast, with 12-year-old scotch. One says “to England,” the other “to mankind,” and the final guy “to @ManUtd.“
Well done director Roland Emerich, well done. And since United were in the Europa League, not the Champions League this year, and playing LASK Linz, not Celtic, well that automatically means that we’re all going to be fine then.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.