There has been so much uncertainty and unrest in the world let alone the sports world. As things are seemingly crawling back to normalcy, what about the Premier League?

The league has yet to decide the future but it appears that FIFA, UEFA, and the English FA are making every effort to play out the remaining games. There are 9 game weeks left in the season, but when could it restart? As these ideas are coming along, there also is a lot of distress and opinions against the idea of the Premier League returning.

What we know: There would be no games in the month of May as players are returning from their respective countries and need to conduct the mandatory 14-day self-isolation that is required by all traveling outside of the country. On top of that, the players have been out of training for nearly two months. There are growing concerns about their fitness and physical health outside of, you know, contracting the Coronavirus during this worldwide pandemic. Growing reports are saying that they have to train in groups of no more than five and must wear PPE gear during said training.

How does this make sense as a result? It doesn’t. You can only train with 5 people and have limited time out on the training ground, but once games are being played, it goes back to 11 v 11 with 4 referees and about 16 coaches on the sideline with their 7 subs on the bench. That is a roughly estimated 56 people on and near the field. This is also excluding the game-day staff behind closed doors.

For football to resume there will be a lot of controversy and dangers involved. At what point do we say that this situation is bigger than football? These players have families too. They are not here solely for our entertainment.

VAR has been introduced to the Premier League for the first time this season. VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. Although you probably have been used to video reviews, football and reviews are a bit different.

For starters, VAR is used to review any obvious mistakes from referees on the infringements of fouls leading to goals, offsides leading to goals, handballs, and red card offenses. On top of that, most sports have challenges. Football does not. This makes it up to the league referees which only fuels the conspiracies that the Premier League is a cynically corrupt league. Throughout the first few months of VAR in the league, there were definitely pain points with beautiful goals being controversially ruled out.

All in all, VAR was brought in to make the right calls, but in the end, it has only divided people’s opinions on the topic of VAR and football. In its sophomore season, there will need to be drastic changes to the process of VAR in order for it to be labeled a success in modern football.

Soccer is a quick-moving, strategic sport. Very much like managing the team at your office, you have to think about the long term outcome and the immediate dangers to your objective and take quick evasive action. Taking a look at these strategies can inform and improve our methods for dealing with progress (and lack of it) on your team.
Going Offsides
The offside rule can be confusing, but part of it is forcing a player offside. Sometimes when managing a project things get completely out of bounds. It might not be deliberate, but it can happen from time to time.  Whether it’s a client requesting something which wasn’t part of the original scope or changing their minds at the last minute, sometimes things can go offside and play is stopped. You then have to restart the game- sometimes with the opposition getting a free kick. The worst-case scenario is that you’re offside and a goal you thought you had achieved is disallowed. The important thing to remember is that the game is still on and getting your team together to regroup is crucial. When it comes to project management, regardless of how things went awry, it’s important to get back to working as soon as possible. Readjust your strategy and don’t waste your teams’ time getting restarted.
 Position Your Team Wisely
Sometimes a player gets put in a position with which he’s not entirely comfortable. Whether it’s a forward being played as a winger or a mid-fielder playing defense – when a player isn’t playing in his natural role, he won’t perform as well as he should. As a project manager, it’s important for you to see and utilize your players’ natural abilities and put them in a suitable position. It’s tricky and it will take time, but it will make all the difference in the effectiveness of your team.
You Aren’t Playing The Game – Your Team Is
Soccer team managers have a frustrating job. They watch the performance of their team from the sidelines without being able to direct in the moment. They’ve trained the team to do certain things and sometimes, things simply don’t go as anticipated. As a project manager, remember that your team is made up of professionals and while they need the guidance of their project manager, you are not the one playing the game. You play a vital part in helping them where you can, but never try to do their jobs for them – even if they have some peculiar ways of making it to the goal.
Goalkeepers are a vital part of the team
Goalkeepers play a very important role in soccer, sometimes they don’t get much of the action, but when they do – they have to be prepared and precise. Managing a project is much like being the hawk-eyed goalkeeper who is watching and evaluating every move on the field. The project manager role includes providing consistent guidance and taking decisive action on behalf of the team to block an impending threat to the projects’ goals.
We can learn a lot from sports – it’s a great example of people earnestly using their physical skills combined with mental focus to achieve a goal. Just like soccer, projects are a team game and being a successful project manager means having a successful team. As the manager, you are not a spectator. Dedicating yourself to sharpening your skills and focus will help you keep your eye on the ball so you can effectively guide and even intervene for your team.

Hi All- going forward, I will be adding information that may help you better understand the game of football. Hopefully, you will be able to take a few things away in order to make the game easier to watch.

For the first blog in this thread of rules/ information, the handball law will be covered. Handball when knowing nothing about it seems easy, but it is quite complex in the end. The rule states it as a foul and the play is blown dead by the whistle of the ref. How do you commit this offense? By using any part of your hand or forearm, up to your shoulder, to touch the ball or change the direction of the ball. With that being said, there are different severities of the handball foul. It can be perceived as accidental, resulting in a common foul, or it can be perceived as a yellow card offense depending on the deliberate nature of the handball. Lastly, it can be deemed a red card offense resulting in you getting ejected from the game and your team playing with 10 players instead of 11. This is the most extreme offense and is relatively rare. This typically happens when you are denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity resulting in the red card.

Lastly, the handball rule has changed drastically this year by the incorporation of VAR and an update to the law. The update states that no goal can be scored as a result of a handball whether accidental or deliberate. This has created issues within the game as it is very controversial when a defender touches it with his hand and is deemed accidental meanwhile, and accidental touch by an attacker rules out a goal no matter what.

This rule is ever-changing and will be reviewed once again in the summer by FIFA and will most likely change and clear up the confusion between players, referees, and fans.