My Uncle Leo died of Covid-19 last week – he was 77 and a massive red.
An Anfield season ticket-holder for most of his life – in the old Main Stand, his seat was about a dozen rows below the press box – we were not overly close but when we met, the talk was invariably about his beloved Liverpool.
Organising a coronavirus funeral is not easy but when Uncle Leo comes to be buried in a plot not much further than an Alisson clearance away from Liverpool’s Melwood training ground, what passes for a cortège in these harrowing times will go past Anfield.
His family and his football club were his life.
Liverpool is a club that has known tragedy like only few others have.
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)
In these days when death tolls, infections and hospitalisations are read out like a daily version of the classified results, every club up and down the land knows tragedy.
And that, it should go without saying, is the ultimate context for arguments about promotion, relegation and titles.
Football does matter, as Leo would have told you in no uncertain terms, but technicalities do not.
When he passed away in a Liverpool hospital, his team were champions.
Champions in his mind.
And Liverpool ARE the champions of this season.
A champion attitude, a champion team, a champion captain, a champion manager.
No need for open top buses, especially when hearses are making their way along Anfield Road.
No need for a big shiny trophy, especially when urns cannot be made fast enough.
No need for ink in the record books, especially when death registers are are growing chapter by chapter, day by day.
(Image: Offside via Getty Images)
I have long thought this season will, technically, end up null and void.
My best guess has always been that they will call it grim quits as this dreadful horror continues to unfold, and start from scratch when the world emerges blinking into the post-coronavirus light.
I have always thought that is the best option.
That is what the Dutch have done. In Germany, though, they are trying to find a way to complete the season and if that can be done here, then fine. We would all love to see football sooner rather than later.
But if it is not possible, then so be it.
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
If the authorities here decide final placings – throughout the leagues – should be decided on a points-per-game ratio, then fine.
That scenario, we are warned from all angles, would result in a torrent of legal challenges.
So be it. Waging court cases because you have just been relegated from a tier of football competition when tens of thousands have people have just been laid to rest without a proper funeral is not a good look.
If you feel there is an injustice, tough.
Thousands of families are stricken by grief and you are throwing a legal hissy-fit because you’re worried the TV millions won’t be coming your way?
(Image: SIPA USA/PA Images)
Tough.
Alternatively, the null and void option, certainly not favoured by UEFA, might lead to challenges from teams set for promotion.
Again, tough.
And, of course, that option would not be favoured by Liverpool.
But my guess now is that even they – the owners, Jurgen Klopp, Jordan Henderson and the rest of the players – are not greatly concerned with the formality of a first title win in three decades.
After all, if they are ‘officially’ crowned Premier League title winners by a resumption of the season or by a points-per-game settlement, there will be no carousing, no champagne, no bunting.
If, as has happened in Holland, they are not ‘officially’ crowned winners, it will also not matter.
Because as far as Uncle Leo was concerned when he left us, they were already champions, in purest sense of the word.
And that – rather than the technical, legal, administrative, horribly cold way of the modern footballing world – is the only thing that matters.
