I am a football manager, I am a former player and a sometimes high-profile figure… but I am also a father, a husband and a son. And I am scared.
I’m not embarrassed to admit that. The extent of the crisis that has gripped the world is obvious and the implications of the coronavirus pandemic are scary.
If you don’t feel that, then you are being foolishly blasé about what could happen.
That doesn’t stop me thinking that football has a contribution to make during these incredibly tough times, though. I believe we have a duty to help people.
For a start, if what I am saying here helps one person to take the threat more seriously and start following the guidelines, then it reduces the risk to others.
And that’s important.
So let me say it. As a football club here in Australia, we are taking this threat incredibly seriously. Our players have strict guidelines. We are still playing – behind closed doors.
So that means training. But we have sent all non-essential staff home, with just a skeleton staff of key football personnel.
Further to that, we have told the players to self-isolate at home and have contact with NO ONE. No going out, no shaking hands, no answering the door even.
That’s tough, because, as a footballer, it’s almost instinctive to shake hands with fans when they approach you. I get it all the time, they just want that bit of contact.
My reaction now?
Well, see Jurgen Klopp’s response coming out of the tunnel before the Atletico Madrid game!
It’s that old adage of better safe than sorry and, I hate to say it, but there are so many countries around the world now where there are a lot of sorry folk, because their authorities didn’t quickly take serious measures to keep them safe.
We are serious in the A League.
As far as I know, there are no reported cases of Covid-19 among football people in Australia and we want to keep it that way.
If all our staff at the training ground follow those rules, there’s a chance we will.
And that means, with no fans and really no people outside the two teams and their staff at games, we can continue to play if the authorities say it is safe.
People need something to look forward to, as they will inevitably get bored and restless while self-isolating.
It’s like us, as footballers. You train all week because there’s the joy and adrenalin of the game at the end of it. Fans are the same – they need that thrill and that passion in their life.
If and when it’s safe for the Premier League to resume, I think they should. I believe it will offer some hope to people – or at least some relief to them.
It may take months, but it will resume, quite possibly behind closed doors like here in Oz. Bill Shankly said, light-heartedly, football is more important than life and death – and that has forever been taken out of context.
I prefer what Klopp said when he explained it really isn’t important at all – that if there’s a choice between football and the interests of the wider society, then it’s no contest. That’s spot on.
But I believe that football can act in the interests of wider society. It’s obvious there will have to be some serious measures put in place restricting the movement of people.
It’s also obvious those measures are needed – and should have been introduced much sooner by the government.
Yet, even in a crisis, you need to recognise that people have true passions that sustain them, even during times as difficult as these.
Maybe, as a sport, we need to do our bit. But I’m not talking health service professional levels of doing our bit. The job they are doing is monumental, they are putting their lives at risk for all of us and, if we didn’t know how important these people are, this will show once and for all.
I hope this pandemic changes lives. I hope the NHS is not drained of staff and resources any more and I hope it is restored in the government’s mind as the jewel of our country.
I also hope there will come a time when football can contribute something to lifting people too.
Imagine if the Premier League got under way in June, say, and every night there was a game on for the whole month. On the terrestrial channels.
That would make many millions stay at home! But I remember when I was a kid progressing as a youth player through the Liverpool system when Hillsborough happened – and knew people who were directly affected.
It was harrowing, unimaginable and I wondered whether football would ever be the same.
Yet, even for the families of the victims, it brought relief and comfort. They were proud of the association with the football club.
Under the right circumstances, it can do the same again. And nobody should feel it is too trivial for people to get excited about.
