Some West Ham United fans have called on the club to drastically change their pre-season plans.
Earlier this month West Ham announced plans to travel to Australia to play in the inaugural Queensland Champions Cup (whufc.com) during pre-season.
The Hammers are due to be joined in Australia by fellow Londoners Crystal Palace. There they will play the Eagles and Robbie Fowler’s Brisbane Roar.
West Ham planned pre-season Australia trip
But the Premier League has been in disarray since with the coronavirus pandemic seeing all football – and indeed all sport – shut down until April 30th at the earliest.
That has put a hold on West Ham’s battle against relegation.
There has been much debate over when – or even if – the league will be able to resume any time soon.
Last week the FA granted special dispensation for the season to be open-ended to ensure the campaign is completed, no matter when.
There has been no official word from West Ham, but that has cast huge doubts over their pre-season trip to Australia in July.
Coronavirus shuts down football
The unprecedented situation facing football is already threatening to push some clubs to the wall.
West Ham and the other 19 Premier League clubs should be fine financially if the season is completed.
But those in lower leagues will struggle to stay afloat during the extended period of inactivity.
And West Ham fans – many of whom questioned the wisdom of the trip in the first place – are now calling on the club to ditch any Australia plans and play lower league sides to help them out instead.
West Ham fan Paul Nagle took to Twitter to suggest a change of plan, not just for the Hammers but all Premier League clubs.
“Once this is all over I think all Premier League clubs pre season tours should be of lower league teams to help them bring in some much needed cash,” he said.
“Keep it in the UK.”
‘Let’s look after our own for a change’
And his post was met with a unanimous swell of support from fellow fans.
Here are a selection of responses.
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