Chelsea were due to play Leicester City in the FA Cup quarterfinal this weekend, but obviously that match isn’t actually going to go ahead for a while — if at all. With all professional football in England suspended until at least April 30th, it will be miracle if we can get the Premier League finished, let alone the FA Cup.
So, what are we to do, other than twiddle our thumbs, stay inside, and hope this coronavirus pandemic subsides soon?
If you’re The FA, you try to appeal to the young generations and you break out the FIFA 20! Alas, they decided to run just a simulation, which is far from great or even interesting.
In case you don’t want to sit through the 40+ minutes of this crap — even for quarantine, this is boooooooring — Chelsea “lose” 1-0, with the goal coming around the 30-minute mark. Virtual Tammy Abraham thought he had the equalizer soon after, but turns out he was offside. Womp womp womppp.
Here are a few ways The FA could’ve made this much more interesting:
- Have each team nominate a “champion” (or two champions, or however many can play at once) to take control and play against each other. I have no idea who’s the best at FIFA 20 at Chelsea or at Leicester City, but based on their social media updates during this break, a lot of the young ones are very much into video games, so I’m sure we could see some high quality gaming.
- Bring in a live announcer to commentate on the game. Peter Drury and Jim Beglin works for me. Peter Drury and ... just about anyone works, really, even Tony Gale. Just get me real live Peter Drury is what I’m saying (well video/teleconferenced obviously because social distancing).
- If the teams themselves aren’t up for it, get some fans in to play. Didn’t Chelsea have a FIFA esports tournament not so long ago? Isn’t there a Premier League one? I bet those kids would love a bit of additional exposure. Sky could chip in by resurrecting FanZone and having fans commentate the game as well. As ever, this is an opportunity to link the FanZone for the Torres miss. Makes me laugh every time.
Oh well.