THE NULL AND VOID merchants from Ibrox are not alone it seems. Had the Rangers been ahead in this season’s Scottish Premiership when the coronavirus pandemic stopped the season in its tracks earlier this month, we all know that they’d be screaming for the title to be awarded to them.
But given that they’d lost the League Cup Final to Celtic and had exited the Scottish Cup at Hearts in the quarter final, the 13 point gap and the 25 goal deficit in goal difference, their hopes of stopping Celtic winning the league and completing Nine-in-a-Row for the second time hinges not on any hopes in the remaining games but only on the impact to the way we lead our lives caused by the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic.
Former Rangers players have been coming out of the woodwork to argue the case for Null and Void, it’s crass, nasty opportunism, nothing but a losers’ Get out of Jail Free card.
But it’s not just Celtic who find themselves in this position. Down south Liverpool have an even more commanding lead that Celtic have in the Scottish Premiership but there are nevertheless similar calls now emerging to Null and Void their season. It is of course just as agenda driven as it is in Scotland.
This afternoon we have a guest column from Jordan Chamberlain who is Editor in Chief at the leading Liverpool FC fans site Empire of the Kop.
What follows is a fairly angry rant from the Empire of the Kop Editor, and there’s very little he says that we disagree with here. Liverpool fans want the games played but if that is impossible, then anyone with any level of integrity at all just needs to look at the Premier League table to see that Liverpool are worthy Champions, whether the league is played to a finish or ended early due to COVID-19.
And to be fair to the supporters of Manchester City, currently in second place in the Premier League, they want nothing to do with Null and Void and reckon that it should be Liverpool’s title. They deserve credit for that show of fairness and sportsmanship.
Today in the news we learn that the SECC in Glasgow is to be turned into an emergency temporary hospital for up to 3000 people. That’s the reality, not starting playing sport again.
When it’s safe to do so let’s play the season to a conclusion. If that’s not possible and football needs to move on, then Celtic, just like Liverpool are worthy Champions regardless of anything that the Ibrox Null and Void opportunists will say.
Although, as I’ve just been discussing with Jordan, Steven Gerrard so far has remained silent on Null and Void. Arguing for it to help the Rangers could cause him real legacy problems if Liverpool are cheated out of their first title since 1990 by a Null and Void outcome.
Now let’s hand over to Jordan Chamberlain from Empire of the Kop for his rant at the Null and Void chancers down south…
Premier League CEOs demanding season cancelled are odious, self-serving cretins – using the deaths of thousands worldwide to their advantage, says Jordan Chamberlain from Empire of the Kop
Let’s not speculate on when to resume this season, because we simply don’t know when it’s going to be safe. We have no idea when this horrible COVID-19 pandemic is going to show signs of slowing down.
And for that reason, it’s morally inexcusable to play football or perhaps even to set out an exact plan of when it’ll be back on the table…
After all, how can we know right now?
But there is nothing morally inexcusable about the following attitude: Let’s follow all guidelines, ensure others do the same, cross our fingers this ends quickly – and then, we’ll worry about football and finish this season.
That makes sense, right? After all – this Premier League season is 29 games in. Sky and BT Sports will be owed nearly £1bn in TV money if we cancel it. We can’t simply expunge history. Football is forever ongoing – there is never a definitive end point – so there is no need to cancel something that isn’t finished.
What doesn’t make any sense is the alarming demands of certain Premier League chiefs to end this season under the guise of morality.
Despite the most recent meeting in which there was a ‘100%’ confirmation to finish this term when possible, the vultures are starting to circle.
In The Athletic, a boss of a Premier League club sanctimoniously peddled a rhetoric that the 2019/20 season should simply be cancelled for ethical reasons.
“You look at the people sitting around the Premier League table by Skype; their egos cannot sustain a mirror being held up to them,” they said. “The fact is they are not as important as a Tesco delivery driver at this time. We run a game. No more, no less. There is no place for sport at the moment.
“It’s absolutely clear what is going to happen. It’s a worldwide pandemic. You just start (the Premier League season) again and there are very few losers. Liverpool, I know. But in the grand scheme of things, honestly, it really doesn’t matter. You’ve just got to start again.”
It’s interesting how they accuse others of not being able to have a mirror held up to them, but ask The Athletic’s writer David Ornstein to hide their name in his piece…
The purpose of this is glaringly obvious. It’s a blatant attempt to sway opinion towards a null and void campaign. And if you think the reason for this is an anonymous multi-millionaire’s worry for the Tesco delivery driver and not his own club you probably have a vested interest, too.
Part of their (fake) narrative is right. Football is only a game – and there are more important things going on right now that need to take precedent. For that reason, let’s not make any decisions until we know what’s going to happen long-term. The country is at standstill, so there’s no rush.
But what said executive is doing is shameless. It is in fact they who are trying to use the situation – and the situation is that people are dying and will continue to die – to their advantage. It’s not somebody from Liverpool, Sheffield United, Wolves, or any other club flying in 2019/20, is it?
We know who it is, but for legal reasons, will not say.
Of course, as Liverpool fans, we’re desperate for this campaign to finish. That’s obvious. But we’re not out here shouting for an immediate resumption for our own benefit. We accept the situation. We need to wait. It needs to be safe. But to sense a weakening of country spirit and feed these quotes to a journalist in an attempt to cancel this ‘season’ and simply start a different one at some point in the future is as audacious as it is callous.
Rant over.
Jordan Chamberlain
Editor, Empire of the Kop
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