Football vs the politicians

IN MANY parts of Europe, footballers are slowly returning to work. It’s a strange sort of return for sure, mostly still involving individual training for now. But increasingly it is being done at their club training grounds and in some cases small group exercises with the ball are being permitted.But for others a long football-less summer now stretches ahead. In the past week both the French and the Dutch leagues have been abruptly ended after the governments in both those countries declared that there would be no sporting events until September.

The football authorities had little choice but to call off the current season after the government decrees. But I find the decision made by politicians in these circumstances to be rather extraordinary and unduly hasty.