One thing - among many - that the Coronavirus crisis has illustrated clearly is football's status in the UK. Yeah, you know, that nation that's supposed to be the game's home

Early on in the lockdown players became a cipher for excess and avarice. Matt Hancock did not demand that pop stars, actors or even City bigwigs (the greed is good crowd) needed to take pay cuts but footballers. A nation nodded its head. An easy goal for Tories

Multinational business pay next to no taxes but it's easier to target the people who play a 'kid's game.' You know why it's easy? Because even football fans are receptive to this sort of bullshit. The undercurrent of resentment towards players is palpable

The game generates a lot of money. The majority should go to the people who provide the entertainment. There is plenty wrong with football's finances but anyone who claims the best players are overpaid is delusional. Where would you have the money go? Daniel Levy or his ilk?

But we move on. The government want the Premier League back. Football's great when it's politically useful. Except... there's an undertow of mistrust about supporters

The authorities believe that fans, like lemmings, will pour out of their houses, spit in the face of social distancing and gather like morons to stare at stadiums' outer walls while games are going on. There may be a couple of dozen cranks who will, but really?

People who would never think of doing stuff like this in a million years accept that those neanderthals who support Liverpool or Leeds will pour into the streets and spray drunken spittle at each other. Yeah, right. Give people a bit of credit

It doesn't matter who you support, those in power can't distinguish you from Leeds or Liverpool. You are all regarded with the same contempt. The Sunday Times' 1985 comment lingers in the folk memory of this country: 'A slum game played in slum stadiums watched by slum people'

And football fans queue up to buy into that sort of ethos. For their rivals, of course, not them. Memo to EFC fans: you're held in as much contempt as LFC supporters. Substitute any team names in the previous sentence. How about recognising some commonality? Nah, no chance

So football fans can't be trusted to watch behind closed doors games on telly but the good citizens of merry old Albion were doing the conga on the streets on VE day

Of course, the people doing the conga shouldn't be so casually demonised either, but that's another thread. Back to football. Too many fans think they are good, decent people but supporters of their rivals are low-life scum. But we're all more or less the same

There are some planks in every fanbase, some thugs, but the majority are OK. We get overexcitable about the game but we're fundamentally alright. So don't buy into the bullshit. Football is still used as a weapon in the class war

The game is still the biggest expression of working class culture in this country and that heritage should be celebrated, not used as a weapon of division. The very people who shout 'trust the people' when it suits them don't trust football fans at all

And if you're a supporter of any club lining up to endorse that mistrust, you are working against your own interests. Football is still on the wrong side of the class divide, at least philosophically. Gentrification has not changed perceptions enough

My view on the game coming back and the title? I sort of don't care. League should restart when it is safe. Logic says that you should complete a season, no matter how long it takes. After all, who knows when a normal campaign can take place

Void this season and start again? Well there may be another voiding. There's a possibility of a second wave plus the (slim) chance of Covid-20 or 21. Normal service may be a long way off. Finish one, start the next. Then finish that

If you're talking about voiding because you don't want a team to succeed or want to avoid failure then it undermines the integrity of the game

And a final point. To those who say 'why are we even thinking about the game at a time like this?' Well, some of us can think about a number of different things at once

The most important thing of all is to keep safe and hope as many of us as possible survive this crisis. Stay well people. And remember, football should be fun