Rio Ferninand suggests Premier League to cancel season amidst Coronavirus outbreak

Rio Ferdinand suggests Premier League call the season void as the league has been halted with the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has opined of cancelling the league and calling it void amidst the coronavirus outbreak, as the league has been suspended at least till 30th April.

Ferdinand believes that it should be called off even if it costs Liverpool their first title since three decades and with the coronavirus crisis showing no sign of slowing any time soon, there are concerns it could be many months before football resumes.

‘I just think the Premier League should just be voided,’ said Ferdinand on his Instagram page. ‘Just void it. “I know there are going to be a lot of Liverpool fans going ‘Oh Rio, it’s just because you support Manchester United and it’s Liverpool’.

‘It’s not that, it’s just that I don’t see a way that it can be done, where health isn’t compromised. Simple as that.’ Amidst all of this one option of playing behind closed doors came up.

But even Ferdinand is against it and says players and staff within the ground would still be at risk of being struck down by coronavirus since the amount of squad and staff is significant.

He added: ‘All this behind closed doors business, you’re still going to have the players there. What, are the players not classed as part of society?

‘There are players who are going to go down lame from the illness, who might not have recovered or who will catch it from someone.

Then it spreads to other players, so it won’t be fair, it’s not a level playing field, I just don’t feel it’s right.

‘And there’s going to have to be people in that stadium to man the stadium – security, etcetera, as well in there, which puts everyone at risk.’

The 41-year-old added that it’s time for football fans to put aside their loyalties to their clubs and ensure the welfare of the wider public. ‘At this time, all this ‘we’re gonna win this or so and so might not go down or so and so might not get promoted.’

‘You’ve got to put those type of things to one side. This is about life and death situations, about society and the wider grand scheme of things. So, football, it ain’t that serious in that sense. Listen, we all love it. I love football, we all love it. But it ain’t life or death.

‘When it comes to matters like these, you’ve got to put people’s health before anything and I just think that’s the way it should be. Start the season with a clean slate.

‘Once this health situation is all ironed out, all sorted out, then we can start a new season because I just don’t see it happening in that time.’ he said.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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