Football doesn’t matter when close to 20,000 people are dying, asserts Graham Potter

Football doesn’t matter when close to 20,000 people are dying, asserts Graham Potter

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Brighton manager Graham Potter has admitted that he’s uncomfortable putting football on a pedestal when people across the world are dying from COVID-19. The Premier League is looking to resume play in the near future despite the fact that the coronavirus pandemic still hitting in full force.

The pandemic has grown at a steady rate across the world, with Italy, USA, and large parts of Europe amongst the worst affected countries. However, that hasn’t stopped the Premier League with them still looking to end the 2019/20 season by playing it through. While there are various other scenarios in place to finish the season, the league’s top priority is to play out the remaining games.

That has caused problems with the virus showing absolutely no sign of stopping and Brighton boss Graham Potter has insisted that football shouldn’t even be close to a top priority right now when 'close to 20,000 people are dying' in the UK only. The former Swansea and Ostersunds boss also added that the situation is a horrendous one and playing football is not important with there enough time to do that.

"That's what I find personally quite challenging. We speak about football at the same time as close to 20,000 people are dying. In lots of cases, people aren't even able to hold the hand of the person that's passing away, which is heart-breaking. I know from my own experiences that losing parents was hard enough. But to lose them to a virus when we could have done something about it...this discussion about when to play football and being safe to do so is not the most important thing for us to consider,” Potter told Sky Sports.

“Where we want to speak about football and around when we can start playing football, the reality of it is that we are in this horrendous situation where lives have been cut short and people aren't able to hold the hands of their loved ones as they pass away. That's the thing that we have to really remember all the time when we're considering what the way forward is."

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