Blues1 read the article properly. Nowhere does it say that matches cannot be postponed on the day. ‘reduce the number of postponements' is not the same as ‘stop late postponements' as you put it. Players with symptoms have to be tested on the day. The rules on the number of available players required to be able to play a match comes from much higher up the food chain than the EFL.

rgp1i totally agree with you blues 1 haven't got a clue what he's on about

Introducing the chief know it all officer Blues1!

blues1 You have the figures and logic all mixed up. First of all, don't compare an annual figure with a figure for two years. Secondly "directly" is literally (actually) the opposite. The figure of 150,000 is people dying with covid (testing positive for covid within 28 days) so not at all directly. In fact, it's quite a useless measure (unless you want to use the figures to coerce the populace) because how many of those people who tested positive within 28 days also ate food within the last 28 days? Statistically, you can't tell whether it was the food, covid or something else that killed them (obviously a fair proportion of the deaths with covid are also from covid). All deaths should be measured as primary cause or contributing cause. We can't be using faulty stats to limit people's freedoms.
The other main point is that people did not miss cancer treatments because of covid, that happened because the leaders of the NHS prioritized covid measures above desperately needed treatment. There are many other deaths and hardships that are yet to come to light, but there is guaranteed to be a huge number of lives lost and badly affected by the covid restrictions.

like i said the other day EFL , are a F ING JOKE, '' OH we dont know what to do ! ahhh sweep it under the carpet and pretend it wasnt there. Nothing changes ,

Rgp1. No if u read the cornavirus page correctly it gives 2 figures 1 for purely covid deaths, and another including those other deaths and the purely with covid figure is 150,000+.

Blues1 if u read the figures correctly ( which clearly you don't) the first figure is deaths within 28 days and the second figure ( which is actually higher) is where covid is mentioned on the death certificate. Perhaps the reason why government can con so many is because the gullible ones will be believe what they are told. As far as I am aware no figures have been published for deaths from covid only. Once again blues1 you make it up as you go along!

Europablue. Of course u can conpare the yearly results of deaths from flu, to the 2 years of covid. Just halve the covid deaths and you'll get the yearly average. Get the point ur making about the 28 days. Absolutely ur correct. But come on, suggesting it may be the food theyve eaten that's killed them. Really? How likely is that. And I didn't say that cancer patients didn't get treatment bcse they had covid. Just thst it was bcse of covid that they couldn't be treated. And yes, totally agree that there may well be other reasons for deaths that will come to light in time. Regardless of all that tho, the fact is, this decision by the efl makes little sense. Bcse while players may have given a negative test all week, they could be positive on game day. And if not tested, and playing, could actually lead to even more games being called off with those players possibly infecting others. Let's hope they've not got this totally wrong.

Blues1 all you have done us twisted the points that Europa made!
Perhaps you haven't tried getting a doctors appointment or medical advice, its like breaking into fort Knox just to get to the receptionist! All I can say is that you must be one of those that happy claps on their doorstep from your privileged position!

Well done Wokingblue for seeing through the smokescreen that is being wafted our way through the current media. Absolutely correct, Covid will be with us for probably the next century and it wont ever go away. Look at the flu pandemic after the last war...we still have flu and nobody reports the thousands of deaths amongst the elderly any more...coz it is a fact of life. we have to get on with life now and live with this and yes i agree with the decision because its long term. Get jabbed and get on with life!!!

Rgp1. No. Thats exactly what u did to me. While I was simply posting figures that I've read u made comments about me as happy clapping. Privileged position. Gullible etc. No, im not. And nor do I believe everything that's said. And thats why I reacted by calling u an idiot. And I apologise for that. And as I said to europa, regardless of any figures etc, the decision by the efl to dobaway with matchday testing makes no sense at a time ehen cases are soaring, hospitalizations and deaths increasing. Actually get the fa t they don't want games called off at the last minute, and that they want less games postponed. But think this could actually lead to more games being called off than are now. Let's hope not tho.

Good decision but needs to go further. Mass testing - in football and society - needs to stop. We must live with Covid. Thankfully the virus is weakening and is now no worse than a host of other viruses we exist with.

Blues1 - my point around flu and covid deaths being broadly similar relates to Covid deaths since the start of the mass vaccination programme. We'll get to the point where we won't need to test for either

Blues1 apology accepted thank you.

First, if you are under 30, fit and vaccinated then COVID is likely to be either asymptomatic or very mild.
Second, yes the number of cases is rising, but that reflects in part the number of tests done; the more you test, the more you will find (that is the purpose of doing it).
Third, whilst hospitalisations and deaths are rising, they are rising at nothing like the rate of cases and are nowhere near the levels of January (looking at the numbers earlier today the James Padgett hospital had just 16).
Fourth, you have to be very careful about the hospitalisation numbers as they include “ incidentals”; say, for example, that you fall over, break your leg and are admitted to hospital where you test positive for COVID then you go down as COVID hospitalisation even though that is not what put you there.
Fifth, I was listening to the Today programme on Radio. 4 recently and they had a London A & E consultant on who went through the Private Fraser routine claiming that we're all doomed. However, the interviewer managed to extract an admission from him that “80 to 90% of those in hospital with COVID were unvaccinated. We really can't go on having endless lockdowns to protect the 10% of the population who are too selfish or silly to get themselves jabbed.

The problem is that too many teams are getting games postponed - allegedly due to Covid but it is in fact due to injuries to key players !! - Unfortunate but true