There won’t be any football for a while.
English football will shut down until at least 3rd April, and probably longer, after the coronavirus outbreak has started to hit players and club staff.
Bolton were set to host Peterborough tomorrow, a game the away side were reluctant to play. They were travelling late on Friday night to minimise time spent at the hotel, then on Friday morning it was revealed one of their players had self-isolated after showing symptoms. The suspension immediately cans tomorrow, plus the away games to Southend and Fleetwood, plus the home game to Doncaster. It’ll also throw the rest of the season into chaos, do we make up those games at some point, do we delay everything and finish the season later, do we abandon it now? We might not even get relegated. That would be one positive.
But those issues are secondary to keeping people well. The official government advice is still that mass gatherings don’t need to be cancelled, as the risk to fans catching the coronavirus is relatively low, but if players and coaching staff are having to self-isolate, then it becomes ridiculous and we really can’t have a game.
We don’t know how long this will last either. April 3rd has been set as a date, but who knows how we’ll be coping this time next month. It’s a frankly scary time, and ultimately, the only sensible decision.
Hopefully, we’ll get through this as best we can, and one day we can be back at the UniBol. Stay safe everyone.