Coronavirus outbreak: 'Six Nations loses sight of bigger picture amid fog'
- Published
'I'm surprised it's taken so long' - Scotland fans on Cardiff call-off
Walking around Cardiff at midday on Friday was a surreal experience.
The sporting planet was in lockdown, but here we were in an apparent microclimate, unaffected, so medical advice told us, by the pandemic that was knocking over fixtures like pins in a bowling alley, all events skittled except one - the miracle that was Wales versus Scotland in the Six Nations.
On the streets of the capital, fans in jerseys wandered about with a degree of wonder. In practically every major city in every country in the world, all manner of different sports events were being postponed because of Covid-19, but even as late as Friday morning, every rugby fan was being assured by the people who run the Six Nations - acting on advice - that the Principality Stadium was some kind of wonderland, immune to the potential dangers that existed everywhere else.
"The game will go ahead" was the mantra. Some science was thrown in to justify the stance and everybody scratched their head, confused by the conflicting signals, from the words of experts saying the game was safe to the sight of football and tennis and golf and other worldwide sports battening down the hatches. Did those sports not have experts, too?
Those governing bodies erred on the side of caution and did the right thing. The Six Nations crossed its fingers and carried on to Cardiff.
Even as they arrived in numbers in planes and trains and automobiles, the visiting Scottish fans weren't sold on the game's invincibility. "They can't call it off now, can they?" asked one. "They should have called it off at the start of the week," said another. Correct.
The risk was too high, the reward too small. Earlier in the week the prospect of a three-game Super Saturday delayed until 31 October was mooted and then waved away. An error of judgment and a failure of leadership.
In encouraging the Scotland fans to travel, the Six Nations has let them down spectacularly. Waiting for the majority of them - in the thousands - to be in Cardiff before calling it off was an indictment of the competition's decision-makers.
Football wouldn't allow this kind of haplessness in European competition. You wouldn't get fans from one country travelling to another only to be told when they get there that a game they were promised would be on was now off. Scotland rugby fans have been let down here.
The Six Nations committee will hide behind the official word from their advisers but they had it within their own gift to call a halt to all games and they botched it. They took an unnecessary gamble and the gamble has blown up in their face. It's a mortifying episode for those in charge of this championship and those who campaigned for the game to be played.
'Right thing is to play leagues to natural end'
Of course the right decision was reached in the end. Scottish football has also found the right answer, albeit belatedly. At some point over the past 24 hours, they came to the conclusion that the Old Firm game could not go ahead. Did that have more to do with perception and public criticism than anything else?
They acted only when the flak they were getting for pushing ahead with the game reached a crescendo, when their inaction looked utterly daft and indefensible. All week they were prepared to take on the coronavirus at Ibrox on Sunday but it was maybe the bad PR that came with that stance that did for the game in the end.
The greater good is now being served. Naturally, this will have ramifications. Common sense has prevailed but that may come at a price for the many financially beleaguered football clubs in Scotland. You'd hope that they all have proper insurance to cover some losses they are about to endure. Some of them live on the breadline.
This is going to be tough; nobody is saying otherwise. The fact that there is no finishing line to this increases the uncertainty and the worry, not just to public health - the be-all and end-all - but also to the health of the domestic game.
We know - or think we know - that the Six Nations will resume in late October, but there are no guarantees in any of this. No clarity about rugby and no clarity about football. What is important, though, is that the incomplete leagues are finished whenever it's safe to do so.
Celtic 'should be champions' if league cannot resume - Lennon
If that means next season's League Cup has to be ditched for a year to make room for the league fixtures from 2019-20, then so be it. If it means the cancellation of the winter break, then cancel it. The notion that titles can be awarded and relegation places decided on leagues that are nowhere near finished is ridiculous.
Neil Lennon entered this territory on Friday, saying that if the league can't be completed then Celtic should be declared champions given their advantage at the top. It's not a tenable position. Do Celtic really want an asterisk beside their ninth successive title? Because that's what would happen. How could it not?
Celtic will want this season to finish, that's for sure. The leagues can, and should be, played to a natural end, even if it means next season's competitions have to be truncated. It's the right thing to do.
There are issues within that. Player contracts will run out in May or June. If the 2019-20 league is still going on in June, July and August, then what's to be done with out-of-contract players? When does the transfer window open? These are challenges that have to be faced now, but there's sufficient headspace to deal with them now that the shutdown is in place.
World sport has never seen anything like this before. Everybody is trying to see clearly in the fog. The cancellation of so many major events is a disappointment but it matters not a jot in the overall landscape.
The Six Nations committee came to that late, late conclusion early Friday afternoon when half of Cardiff was already draped in Scottish blue.