I’m glad this football season is on hold – the coronavirus pause is showing fans just how ugly the beautiful game is

Like most fans, I’m currently struggling through football cold turkey.

I’ve missed the games themselves since the season was suspended because of the coronavirus, but I’ve also missed the surrounding drama, that permanent palaver in the background of every supporter’s life. It’s only when it is suddenly snatched away that you realise how important it is.

So when I read reports that the season could start up again, with games played behind closed doors, part of me is really excited. But another part thinks it would be great if there were a much longer pause before football comes back. Why?

As hundreds of people die in the UK every day, Premier League bosses are plotting a lucrative “TV mega event” of closed-door matches this summer. They’ve been warned that this would risk thousands of fans turning up outside the closed stadiums.

They know the games would risk injured players putting unnecessary burdens on stretched hospitals. They are aware they would require removing ambulances and paramedics from the frontline, and diverting test kits from those who urgently need them.

So why is the industry pushing so hard? Because they don’t want to pay back £762m in television revenue. They’re scared that if there is a prolonged spell without matches, fans will notice the ways of the dirty rats that run the game.

Without the distraction of games, the coronavirus pause is showing fans just how greedy and evil the sport has become. And now that more fans are waking up, I don’t want the true opium of the masses to return and put us straight back to sleep. With our eyes open, we can see the truth.

Daniel Levy, Tottenham’s billionaire chair, for example, recently told 550 non-playing staff they'll have their wages cut by 20 per cent. On the same day, it was revealed he was paid £7 million last season. Liverpool placed non-playing staff on furlough – an incredibly wealthy club owned by a multi-billionaire, taking public money during a global crisis.

And as nurses and doctors labour away on a pittance, unprotected from infection, a recent Premier League meeting saw a club director ask whether the government would send private jets to collect players from the holidays he was going to send them on. It’s hideous.

The sport might have blood on its hands. Experts say that a football match that went ahead in Italy in February against medical advice was a“biological bomb” that helped make Bergamo in northern Italy an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 7,500 people have died after contracting coronavirus in Italy.

Stories like these are forcing fans to face the ugly reality of the “beautiful game”. Many of us already knew, really, but the relentless cycle of matches kept us distracted enough to never really think about it. Even the football-free summers had distractions of the transfer market. Winter, spring, summer or autumn – the sport’s gluttonous bosses kept us distracted and docile.

But with no games or transfers, the smokescreen is clearing and there is a chance for a revolution in fan consciousness. We can unite and demand a more moral sport. Change is possible, as we saw when Liverpool reversed their decision to place some non-playing staff on temporary leave and apologised to fans.

As fans realise the contempt their clubs’ owners hold them in, they might even begin to notice the evils of capitalism. As Terry Eagleton wrote in 2010: “If every right-wing think tank came up with a scheme to distract the populace from political injustice… the solution in each case would be the same: football.”

If the game returns too soon, the opportunity for any awakening will be lost, as we return to the same old distractions and divisions.

To be clear, despite the dripping greed of the men in suits, there have already been positive gestures. Celtic’s magnificent North Curve fans are putting together hampers for NHS workers. Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson contacted fellow Premier League captains to organise a coronavirus fund that will raise millions of pounds for the NHS. Manchester United’s lovely Marcus Rashford raised £20m to provide food for schoolchildren affected by coronavirus.

Last week, the Premier League announced that games will only return when it is “safe and appropriate” but my bet is they’ll be looking to stretch the definitions of those words to the absolute hilt, so they can restart the money-spinning games as soon as possible.

The longer the pause, the greater the chance there is for us to rediscover the game’s soul and conscience. Football, we miss you terribly but maybe the cold turkey will do us good in the long run. Come back by all means – but not too soon​