Dave Seddon's PNE pressview: Preston North End doing their bit to help the community amid coronavirus crisis

Football’s news agenda is dominated by ideas and stories of how to get going again and the fears for the future of our beautiful game.
PNE Community and Educational Trust has been delivering Helping Hampers  to elderly supporters. Photo: Preston North EndPNE Community and Educational Trust has been delivering Helping Hampers  to elderly supporters. Photo: Preston North End
PNE Community and Educational Trust has been delivering Helping Hampers to elderly supporters. Photo: Preston North End

More on that later in the column but there is another layer to this shutdown and one that deserves so much recognition.

The work football clubs have done in the community to protect the vulnerable and just bring a bit of normality into people’s lives, has been admirable to say the least.

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I’ll focus on Preston North End for the purpose of this piece but obviously so much good is being done by clubs up and down the country.

The PNE Community and Educational Trust has been busy in the city since the Covid-19 pandemic cast its shadow over the country.

Their ‘Helping Hampers’ project has been wonderful, with more than 300 food hampers – and advice on staying fit and healthy during the lockdown – having been delivered to elderly North End fans and those who need some help.

The hampers have put smiles on faces at a difficult time, PNE have stayed connected with them even though a ball hasn’t been kicked now for nine weeks.

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The trust’s staff and volunteers have been busy driving around the city doing the deliveries, a chat and friendly smile equally as important.

On Gentry Day last month, a number of past and present North End players rang round some elderly fans for a natter about football.

It wasn’t Gentry Day in its usual form, the occasion unique to PNE just took a different form.

In years to come when we look back on Gentry Day history, 2020 might not have a football venue attached to it but North End can proudly say it went ahead.

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The venue just changed to supporters’ front rooms as phone lines buzzed.

Those who made the calls commented how much they had enjoyed having a chat, remember it’s good to talk.

At some point, there will come a time when we can all gather again at a football ground.

Until then, community projects will be a lifeline and the hard work will continue long after that in other shapes and forms.

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When end-of-season awards are handed out, whenever that might be, it should be the community staff and volunteers who need to be recognised by the football family.

How to get players back on the pitch is proving very difficult to work out.

There was a glimmer of light this week with the news that the Bundesliga in Germany will be restarting this month.

However, that is not an automatic green light for other countries to get going.

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Every country will have its own challenges in coping and dealing with the virus.

On these shores, the challenge has been great and we will all have a view on how it has been handled.

It could well be that League One and League Two clubs will vote to finish the season early next week, with promotion and relegation decided on points per game.

The argument for doing that, is financially clubs cannot go down the behind closed doors route – some have argued it would cost them more to do that than ending the campaign.

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There could well be legal challenges to that course of action from clubs who miss out on promotion as a result.

So things could all get rather messy before there is any conclusion.

There seems a determination within the Championship to plough on and play to a finish when safe to do so.

And in the Premier League, we are fed a daily commentary of how the season can be completed.

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Neutral venues seem to be the favoured course for most of the top-flight.

However, clubs nearer to the foot of the Premier League have raised strong objections and want to retain home advantage for the games scheduled on their own ground.

Naturally there is a strong whiff of self-interest involved which you can kind of understand but at the same time, doesn’t exactly sit comfortably with the mantra of ‘we’re all in this together’.

There was a suggestion that neutral venues would only get the nod from some clubs nearer the bottom on condition no one was relegated this season.

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That is totally against the grain and throws an idea of sporting integrity out of the window.

If games are going to be behind closed doors, surely home advantage goes out of the window?

Pitches are the same size and grass is cut the same way.

It is the crowd which gives a side home advantage, or indeed a disadvantage if they are notorious for turning on their own team when things start going wrong.

If the Premier League wants to play to a finish, their focus should be on doing that in whatever way possible.

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In the Championship, there hasn’t to date been talk of neutral venues.

The EFL seem to think clubs can conclude the season home and away and that is a view supported by most.

If the season is to be played to a finish, I don’t really see the rush for that to happen.

Next season is going to be late starting anyway, the focus should be on finishing 2019/20 first and then finding a way of 2020/21 starting after that.

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I hear the arguments for this season to be abandoned and to start afresh in the autumn.

But will things be any safer then? This virus is here to stay until there is a vaccine and that could be many months off, probably well into 2021.

Over the next couple of weeks we should get more clarity on the way forward.

In April, EFL clubs had been advised to hold back on returning to training until May 16 – that is a week on Sunday.

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That was with a view to the season perhaps resuming on June 6.

That proposed start date is less than a month away so firm decisions are needed very soon. Maybe a clearer timetable can be worked out once we hear from the Prime Minister on Sunday night.

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