Many Leeds United supporters have been responding to a tweet by the BBC’s Adam Pope after he relayed the results from the EFL’s latest round of testing for the virus that saw the Championship suspended back in March.
The EFL released a statement on Saturday evening confirming 1058 players and staff from the 24 Championship clubs were tested on Thursday and Friday, with 10 individuals testing positive from eight clubs (via efl.com). Here is what some of the Elland Road faithful had to say in response to the update.
I’ve said from day one this ain’t happening only the PL and playing the teams that have games in hand first they can then call it PPG this ain’t Germany we’ve had nearly 40,000 deaths
— Mark talbot (@Marktalbot20) May 30, 2020
How can they continue. What happens if one team gets a couple of players and the rest are isolated. They then couldn’t continue the season.
— Darren Webster (@websterphotog) May 30, 2020
10 isn’t bad but spread across 8 clubs is a bit more of a concern.
— FocusOnLeeds (@FocusOnLeeds) May 30, 2020
Fulham have another player who is positive. 2 earlier on in the week as well
— Andrew McKeeman (@TennisLeedsNI) May 30, 2020
Is it too soon to resume the Championship later this month?
Yes
No
Since the publication of those results, it was announced on Sunday that the Championship is set to resume on 20 June, “subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met”. However, there are some supporters who have opted to look at things in a different light and believe the results aren’t as bad as they seem on the surface.
Send them home for 2 weeks and crack on with the footy. 10 out of 1000 tested positive and 0 deaths, all good
— stuart.town (@stuart23215539) May 30, 2020
Obviously all asymptomatic also, be interesting to see how many of these tested have already had this. When is the antibody test ready?
— Briggsy?? (@JBLUFC23) May 30, 2020
Whilst in an ideal world we would have liked to have heard of no positive cases, it is clear that in the eyes of the EFL the result is an acceptable one. That is evidenced by the fact that just a day after making the results public they proceeded to provide the Championship supporters with a provisional date for the competition to resume.
Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United are currently top of the division and are looking to secure promotion to the Premier League for the first time since their relegation in 2004. They are seven points clear of Fulham in third and will be determined to go up automatically after last season’s playoff semi-final heartbreak.