When the great Scottish football manager and socialist Bill Shankly famously said:

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."

he wasn't reckoning on a global pandemic like the Covid-19 disease that has put sport and many aspects of our normal lives into their true perspective.

Football in England, like most countries of the world, has ground to a standstill this last month in the wake of the Corona Virus sweeping the globe and the Premier League season and FA Cup have been left hanging on the edge of a cliff of uncertainty.

When the season stopped abruptly after Gameweek 29, Liverpool stood astride the top flight table by 25 points seemingly on their unassailable way to their first title in 30 years and with the Champions League, European and relegation places up in the air.

Even comfortable mid-table teams like Newcastle United have something to play for having reached the FA Cup Quarter-Final for the first time since 2006 and 50,000 Geordie fans were looking forward to playing a team at St. James' Park that The Magpies have beaten and drawn against in their last two Premier League encounters. Manager Steve Bruce is keen to kick off & carry on and his "Festival of Football" idea with the rest of the season played in quick succession tournament-style is catching on.

With 75% of the season already been played, there are only 99 games to be played in England to complete the domestic League and remaining Cup and would be madness to think of scrapping it which would seriously damage the integrity of The Premier League.

Inevitably, there have been calls from some to void the season with less than a quarter to go - just 92 total Premier League games plus just seven matches in the FA Cup - but the loudest of those voices are from clubs, pundits and and players with vested interests in seeing the season null & void like West Ham's Karen Brady who was initially calling for it to be cancelled so precariously-placed West Ham in 16th could not be relegated - before finding out the great financial cost of it to clubs.

Unsurprisingly, fans and pundits of Liverpool's rivals Everton and Manchester United have been among the most vociferous but only the most churlish would deny the Reds a long-awaited first Premier League crown but the need to finish the season is vital and unavoidable.

As UEFA indicated in a meeting today reaffirming that The Champions League & Europa Leagues will be finished in July, August or September, finishing the season at some point is the only choice in terms of football, fairness, finances &, above all, the fans.

Football Must Finish In Summer To Uplift Fans All Over The World

The appetite for football and especially Premier League football throughout the world has remained undimmed in the month since football was halted due to Corona Virus - the beautiful game is sport, entertainment and passion bordering on religion in one. Not for nothing are football grounds referred to as shrines and places of worship by the devoted souls who attend but the thousands locked out in Britain aren't the only ones.

Its not just in England where football is central to people's lives - all over the globe from Dubai to Denver, Bombay to Beijing in over a billion homes in 188 of the 193 countries recognised by the United Nations in which it is shown, the best League in the world is enjoyed and loved by all. Even in deepest Africa, David Goldblatt tells us in 'The Age of Football - The Global Game In The Twenty-First Century?' , the Premier League schedule is, for example, responsible for Ugandans becoming attuned to the 24-hour clock of the world rather than local sun-based morning-afternoon-evening routines and daily life, weddings and even Church is arranged around Super Sunday kick-off times.

I have a friend in Gambia, a country whose food supply is compromised by the global shut-down of markets & trade routes, asking daily when The Premier League is returning to make life more bearable in a bad time and something to look forward to.

Back home in England, football is a huge part of fans' lives interwoven into every aspect of society and a wonderful unifier of the nation - many conversations with strangers are based around the sport and friends made through it - and is integral to people's lives and its return could prove a vital distraction to the tedium of lockdown and isolation.

In World War Two, football played a vital role in keeping the British public entertained during hard times and the Premier League could play the exact same crucial role during the current crisis.

What Happens Next?

What Happened Next? is a round on TV show Question of Sport that allows the contestants and viewers to guess what unlikely event occurs next in the world of sport when the a film clip is frozen like in this Sunderland - Liverpool game from 2009 when the sides were managed by Steve Bruce and Rafa Benitez respectively... Have a guess.

What happens next with football and The Premier League now is the burning question on every football fans lips after the beautiful game was abruptly stopped and the nightly match replaced by the nightly news bulletin, Monday Night Football by Michael Gove.

One way or the other the vast majority now agree including Karen Brady and all of the Premier League clubs, the West Ham chairperson who wrote in her tabloid column:

"When we - all Prem clubs - last spoke, we agreed to get going again as soon as possible

And that games will run into July, if required, to get this campaign finished. This is the plan. This is what we want to deliver.

It may be games have to be played behind closed doors, which no one wants - especially the players and fans."

Its possible Brady had seen the light due to the fact the Premier League & clubs would stand to pay back billions collectively from breaking TV contracts and sponsorship agreements if they are not able to fulfill the remaining fixtures requirements.

Current talk is of games played in World Cup-style quarantined camps at football bases across Britain - St. George's Park, the England training facility has been earmarked as one venue, Manchester and even Sunderland's spacious training facilities have been mooted which would certainly spice up Sunderland Till I Die Season 3. Could Newcastle United seal a behind-closed-doors FA Cup, a first major trophy in 50 years, at the training ground of their local rivals?

Naturally, any return has to be completely safe for all involved - players, staff, officials and TV camera crews - with mandatory testing before and after the tournaments for everyone and the usual top-heavy entourage that accompany games in terms of coaches will be greaty reduced to the bare minimum skeleton staff to absolutely reduce any risk.

What of the professional players themselves? Would they be up for it?

In wartime, 'going over the top' was the ultimate sacrifice for young men being thrust out of the trenches into no-mans land almost to their certain doom and can't be compared to what is being asked of Premier League footballers under the current proposals. Indeed, many of the game's players and managers are champing at the bit to play with Kevin de Bruyne announcing today on Twitter that being confined to the house has already made him want to extend his career:

In the 2020 'war' against Covid 19, watching extremely well-paid footballers crossing the white pitch line to play at medically-secure and quarantined pitches to uplift the country and fans all over world is something we would all be thankful for.

The world will beat Corona Virus and the beautiful game can show there is always hope by putting on its great show and competition despite adversity for the good of us all.