• IT is a shame that it has taken the coronavirus crisis to highlight the existence of a “moral vacuum” among Premier League football clubs.

After this crisis is done, it might be useful for the media to ask some really difficult questions about the actual level of commitment of the clubs toward the local communities in which they operate.

Too often it would appear that journalists and the like are taken in by the PR puff distributed by these clubs without delving deeply into the actual detail of what these clubs provide for their local communities.

In the case of my nearest club, Arsenal, it is a sad indictment that their players, I believe, never, or very very rarely, visited local youth and football clubs (unless you were a paid-up Junior Gunner) and, in healthier times, local schools, local hospitals and the like.

Clubs are happy to sell extortionately-priced shirts to local kids… without, I suggest, thinking about the possible impact that this might have on hard-pressed parents.

Perhaps, with the help of an inquisitive media, things in the future might change?

With best wishes for a healthy future…

DC THOMAS
Bryantwood Road, N7