Anyone bored yet?
As you’ll no doubt know, the coronavirus outbreak has totally obliterated this weekend’s sporting schedule in the UK and around the world.
There’s no Premier League, EFL, WSL, or Scottish Premiership this weekend and this lack of sporting action is set to continue for more weeks and potentially months ahead.
COVID-19 is a once-in-a-generation challenge we’re facing and the social and economic implications are very serious, meaning sport is not that important at all in the grand scheme of things.
But sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and talkSPORT.com has singled out four things we’re already starting to miss with no sport on.
Matt Lawton on Greg Clarke’s stance during emergency Premier League meeting
Fantasy Premier League
We’ve all been there. 11:28am on Saturday, or sometimes a Friday at 6:58pm, and it suddenly dawns on you that you haven’t changed your fantasy team for the upcoming gameweek…
At this point you have two choices.
1) Do nothing. An unthinkable option for any self-respecting fantasy league manager.
2) Most pursue this option which is to frantically make whatever transfers and formation changes that can be done in less than 120 seconds while also making the quickfire decision on who should be the team captain and thus get double points.
After that, it’s all down the players in real life to score as many points for you and every manager goes through the classic ‘oh, shoulda made him captain’, or ‘shouldn’t have picked him, he’s useless’, or even the rare ‘I’m a tactical genius!’
And after all the fixtures are completed, there’s the eager wait to see where you stand in all your respective leagues.
Sadly, there will be no changes this week.
Betting Accas
Now there are fewer things to do, saving some money is a real possibility and with no football fixtures there are fewer accumulators to potentially lose your hard-earned cash on.
Accas, where you place bets on multiple sporting matches, mainly football, are a great way to win some dough.
The more results you rely on though, the less chance you have of winning but if everything does come through for you then you’re potentially thousands of pounds up for something you’ve not had to work particularly hard at.
They prove to be a fruitless endeavour for most but that doesn’t stop us from trying every weekend.
And you could say it’s that familiarity of going through the motions every weekend that will lead to an empty hole in our lives while the COVID-19 problems persist.
The match itself
Whether you’re at the venue itself, listening LIVE on talkSPORT, watching it on the telly, down the pub, or on a stream you’d rather not disclose, there’s nothing like getting ready for another weekend of matches across all sports.
Whether you support a successful team or one that’s struggling to get by, all us fans share the common interest of the build-up, the highs and lows during the match and the post-match debrief with your family or friends about where it all went wrong or right for your team.
With regards to football, there are still live matches this weekend but it’s slim pickings even for the most enthusiastic lovers of the game.
And we really don’t know how long that’s going to be the case for.
Memes
Coronavirus is rightly being treated as a very serious issue – but all the reports of bad news can just be so draining.
So one place you can go for a more lighthearted outlook is social media.
For all of social media’s flaws, the likes of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook is a hotbed for meme-based banter, and this is frequently at its best when there’s some live sport on.
Amazingly, many people and fan accounts have managed to make brilliant jokes in the face of the coronavirus adversity, but you do wonder how long social media accounts can keep up this good work.
Sport is a wonderful thing that touches our lives. It can act as an escape for any stresses or troubles you’re experiencing.
It’s not clear how long sport will be absent from our lives for, so it’s important we make the best of the situation we find ourselves in.
