Alan Biggs: Without fans at Sheffield United v Leeds United, or any other game ...what's the point?

Sadly, there’s not been a trickle, let alone a flood ... let’s ask these questions instead (this column’s opinion in brackets).

Is there any alternative to getting life back to normal or trying to? (No, none - other than curling up and being captive to COVID).

Is sport a valuable part of normal life? (Yes, and important for the morale of the nation.) I mean, Sheffield United v Leeds United this weekend - behind closed doors for crying out loud!

We should be talking about it here but, relatively, what’s the point? And I can’t believe I’ve just written that.

If this virus was an advancing army and our leaders were generals, we, as a nation, would be in full surrender mode.

Here I can only address a slice of life. Without supporters present, does any game of football count for anything much? (Shockingly, NO). Or the game itself? (No).

To the participants, yes, it matters. To the many watching on TVs and laptops, yes. A major care about winning or losing. But is there - can there be - a real passion about either? And without that fervour, what’s left?

You can’t just ladle it down a cathode ray tube.

Currently, for me, results are mostly about being in a good position for when the real thing starts again. For many EFL clubs it’s not even about that. Just survival.

The Premier League knows it might as well be taking place inside a computer game without a real crowd.

Look, supposing a rank outsider were to win the Premier League title this season (and don’t say it can’t happen). As a real extreme, say it was Sheffield United doing a Leicester? Or imagine the Blades winning the FA Cup for the first time since 1925?

Either would be a great triumph. But I’d argue it would be equally as great a tragedy. Maybe tilting to the tragic over the triumphant

A bit like missing your own wedding or the birth of a child. How can you possibly enjoy great moments in your life unless you are there?

In some ways, it’d be more torture than pleasure to see the Blades thrive again this season. And for fans of any team you care to mention.

As a regular match-going pal put it to me: “If a tree falls at night in the middle of a forest, does it make a noise?”

Well, arguably no, not if no-one’s there to hear it. Who’s feeling the same about football?

I say that as one of the lucky and privileged few able to attend games with our media hats - and masks - on.

To moan that our own enjoyment is being spoiled is a bit rich and deserves no sympathy. Except that it’s true, of course. No racing heart, no tingle, no full blast on the headphones to hear above the crowd, no need to shout.

Just as you truly feel for supporters (reduced from being excited to merely keenly interested), you worry for the industry as a whole because people can get weened off a drug over a long period, particularly if it is expensive.

That said, many people rightly or wrongly truly live for football. Our pleasures are what makes life worth living. The damage to mental health in some cases must be acute.

So when we yearn across the whole of life to “get back to normal” how can we leave football out of the reopening of offices, pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc ?

It’s complex to reopen the gates (who comes in and how many?) but a start offers much needed hope. And this is an open air sport, for heaven’s sake.

I’d love to hear what Chris Wilder REALLY thinks about this. Reckon I can guess. Better not say. Some people stupidly mistake “getting back to normal” for not taking COVID seriously or not caring about protecting the vulnerable. Utter nonsense. The actual bottom line is that ALL of life is a risk and we have to manage that as best we can, taking individual responsibility. We don’t chuck everything away to manage those risks.

Can we not have staggered arrivals and departures for blocks of fans? Maybe a steward at each gangway exit to control?

And this is before we get on to the stark reality that some lower league clubs can’t exist for much longer without crowd revenue.

Who wants to be a witness to that? If football really matters - as it does - it needs people present. And fast.

The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about. Fans in general have been commendably tolerant and patient. They resoundingly supported the first lockdown; they wouldn’t be so accepting of a second and you couldn’t blame them.

It’s only a part of life but, like the rest, let’s be sensible and allowed to get on with it as the ONLY way forward.

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