Two weeks ago, we were all making seemingly innocent jokes about how it would be hilarious if Liverpool were denied their first title in two decades because of the coronavirus.
Well, that nearly happened! It may STILL yet happen!
Two weeks ago, we were all just sort of waiting around for someone else, the government maybe, or ‘scientists,’ to ‘sort out’ coronavirus for us. Today, nearly every sporting league in the world will have a major asterisk next to the 2019-2020 season, and in Ontario, where I live, we’re about to enter three weeks of government-mandated social distancing.
You probably know all this already.
I would say this is a black swan event, but it isn’t really. Various epidemiologists have been warning this was on its way, and—voila!—here we are, more or less unprepared. Governments the world over are giving conflicting advice. The Premier League hemmed and hawed over whether it would stop games even as it knew players were getting tested for COVID-19, and then made the call only hours after essentially telling everyone it would be more or less business as usual.
I don’t have any profound message here beyond—we all suck at contingency planning. Suck. At. It. We like to think the invisible hand of group behaviour will take care of us in these situations, but what will we do when millions aren't available to pay their rents in April? Who will compensate all of us for the massive economic loss on its way?
All of this is to say, hopefully, after the dust settles on what is going to be a couple of long, hard years, after we mourn our many dead (something we’re not even mentally prepared to deal with yet), hopefully we might take some hard lessons from all this, particularly with that other slow burn of an apocalyptic problem on its way—climate change.
This is a severe global health crisis, so I won’t diminish it in any way by bringing football into the discussion. But I will say that contingency planning costs little, takes very little of resources, and doesn’t need to be revisited over and over again. You can do it for a number of broad, closely related crises. You can do it either as a club, or, ideally, in tandem with your league and FA.
Because if we don’t learn our lessons, this will all happen again.
Finally, I would please urge you to consider supporting those you know who will likely survive the health scare but who will face grave financial hardship in the coming weeks. Throw them some money! Even if they don’t ask for it! There are many who rely on sports to make their living, and this is going to be absolutely devastating for them. Please consider helping out.
I’ll be back next week!