Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has expressed his concerns over the restart of the Premier League, citing the potential “farcical” situation of fans celebrating and ignoring lockdown guidelines.
The Reds are two wins away from securing the title – six points that will likely be quickly picked up whenever the season eventually resumes, given we’ve only dropped four all season.
Anderson, an Everton fan, believes plans to have the Premier League kick-off again aren’t worth consideration, as it’s his belief that Liverpool fans will go against measures put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
“Even if it was behind closed doors, there’d be many thousands of people who would turn up outside Anfield,” he told the BBC.
“There’s not many people who would respect what we were saying and stay away from the ground, a lot of people would come to celebrate so I think it’s a non-starter.
“I think it would be really difficult for the police to keep people apart and maintain social distancing if they were going to celebrate outside Anfield, it would be farcical.
“It’s difficult for us to try to stop people gathering in parks when the weather has been good, especially young people. And I fear people would just ignore it.”
The mayor has a right to be concerned, as there are hundreds of people up an down the country who are already ignoring lockdown guidelines, but this shouldn’t stop plans to resume the Premier League.
He certainly wasn’t this vocal when thousands of Madrid residents made their way to Merseyside last month!
Hindsight if of course a luxury, but I think the football resuming will have the opposite effect.
With the Premier League back on TV, and all pubs being closed, people are more likely to stay in and watch it.
I, for one, will watch the Reds lift the title (probably in an empty stadium) crack open a can in my back yard and bask in the sunshine.