Premier League fans know of America’s pandemic sports pain
Graham Gunnion is a born and raised Liverpool soccer fan.
Which is another way of saying he talks in expletives now.
“It’s a (expletive) nightmare,” said Gunnion, who has made Las Vegas home for nearly two decades. “It’s just terrible. I’m so frustrated with the whole (expletive) thing. To be that close to winning it for the first time in 30 years … It’s a (expletive) shame.”
If you think American sports fans are pulling out clumps of hair over their favorite leagues being shut down due to the coronavirus, we present those elsewhere who religiously follow the world’s most popular sport.
The hope in Europe is much like in the States, namely that entities such as the Premier League can resume play this summer.
Already, players are back training for a number of Bundesliga clubs in Germany.
But while it’s not a long shot comparable to Leicester City in 2016, enough leagues and championships have been suspended or canceled across several countries to make any return questionable.
Game-day workers have been furloughed. Folks are struggling as much there as here.
There has even been heavy criticism of those Premier clubs choosing to use a government-created coronavirus scheme for non-playing staff, which includes public funds.
The whole thing is a mess.
Liverpool sits 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League and this close to winning a title for the first time since Prince Harry was a 5-year-old who still preferred living in England.
What happens to the club’s presumed championship if the schedule isn’t completed?
What happens if the Champions League final — the sport’s richest event — isn’t ultimately played and hundreds of millions of dollars are lost? What happens to the promotion and relegation system where most countries have no playoffs and determine the following year’s placement on regular-season performance?
A format, by the way, where promotion is worth $250 million in revenue per elevated club.
What happens in places like Italy and Germany and France and Spain, in spots all across Asia, where the top of standings aren’t as certain as with the Premier?
Why in the world would Kyle Walker of Manchester City have a three-hour sex party with two escorts during the lockdown and then film a Public Service Announcement asking people to practice social distance?
I digress.
Eric Wynalda is head coach of Las Vegas Lights FC and who in 1992 became the first American-born player to compete for a top level German club.
He also knows how those like Gunnion must be feeling.
“It’s horrible,” Wynalda said. “I played against (Liverpool manager) Jürgen Klopp. It has been fascinating watching him create such a new level of excitement with the club. It’s saddening, really. I’m sure other (Premier League clubs) would get worked up about this and say Liverpool didn’t finish the season. But if that becomes the case, the right thing would be to just give them the trophy.”
Maybe it returns
There is a free kick of hope, given reports this week that suggested the 20-team Premier League will eventually play out its 38-match season, which usually runs from August to May.
It would also likely do so in empty stadiums and not commence before July.
Maybe this occurs. Nobody knows.
And that makes those like the 61-year-old Gunnion lose their minds.
Think of the Crown & Anchor running out of beer at halftime of a World Cup final.
That sort of anger.
For now, the chanting and singing and whistling, the clapping and its uninterrupted pattern of sound, have been quieted.
It might be the wealthiest league in the world, but the Premier isn’t the best in terms of talent.
There are better clubs than many of those 20.
In fact, versions of soccer can be traced to the Han Dynasty in Imperial China, because what’s better than a little kick-around during a break from building the Great Wall?
But it has always been Europe’s game, its contemporary style having been created in England.
So even now, amid a pandemic of rising numbers, the world’s most popular form of football carries on in the hearts of those who cherish it most.
“I can’t believe Liverpool has waited this long to win it and might get shafted, maybe robbed of the title,” Gunnion said. “It will be a (expletive) crime if that happens.”
Maybe he isn’t that different from American sports fans after all.
Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.