The full transcript of Simon Jordan's chilling prediction which would strike Leeds United, West Brom, Cardiff City and Swansea hard
The former Crystal Palace chairman gave an eye-opening account of why he thinks the season should be voided
By Glen Williams
Wednesday 29th April 2020
Simon Jordan believes players' welfare should be at the forefront of any decision making or there will be huge consequences
Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has warned of the extreme perils footballers will face if the season is rushed back as he called for the entire campaign to be voided.
Countless think-tanks and top-level meetings have convened over recent months to decide how best the current season should be concluded, with football on hold amid the coronavirus outbreak.
One fear which has become prevalent is returning to football too early and unnecessarily putting players at risk of contracting the virus.
And Jordan, now a contributor on radio station talkSPORT, believes the dangers of rushing football back before we have a vaccine could have grave and irreparable consequences.
Jordan insisted the 'will-they-won't-they' saga about voiding the season should be put to bed, thus easing the demand for the game to be rushed back.
Although that, of course, would mean Leeds United and West Brom will not be promoted. It would also mean the likes of Cardiff City and Swansea City, who sit two and three points off the play-off spots respectively, will not be afforded their chance to break into the top six and earn their shot at promotion.
Jordan, however, believes circumstances have removed the situation to such an extent that football in this country should follow in Holland and France's footsteps by cancelling this season, wiping the slate clean and starting afresh when it is safe to do so and there are no external pressures to get football back on TV screens.
Here is his stark and chilling transcript in full.
SIMON JORDON:
"Oliver Dowden, from the DCMS, came out and said we should make (football on) television free to air. How is that going to help stricken football clubs and their finances?
"'It's good for the nation and I'm glad the Premier League are coming back because we need to restart the transfer market'... no we don't need to restart the transfer market at all! We want to keep spend down!
"We want to suppress the desire for clubs to go out there and spend £100m on players so we can carry on with this recession-proof industry that seems to think it can circumnavigate the challenges.
"The best-case scenario is that we lose this season.
"Liverpool aren't champions, Leeds aren't promoted, Aston Villa aren't relegated, Norwich aren't relegated, Crewe are not promoted.
"I think we are really into that territory now. I don't see how we can't be.
"We've got a disease, as much as I don't want to be a doomsday merchant, that we don't have a vaccine for.
"Despite the fact that everyone going to work and spreading it is an issue, everyone isn't spitting and kicking one another and putting sweat over one another as footballers do.
"You cannot have a situation whereby a global sport of this magnitude has a player that becomes infected, which is an absolute inevitability, because they're going to get infected until we find a vaccine.
"And if something dreadful happens, what happens to sport then? Corporate manslaughter? Is that what we're going to talk about next?"
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