Let’s rejoice that football is back – even if the only fans are cardboard cut-outs – Simon Carter

For Pompey’s players are starting their third week of full-contact training ahead of their first competitive game in 114 days – the club’s longest gap between meaningful fixtures since the Second World War years. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.

The Blues last played on March 10.

Back then, who would ever have imagined they would next play on July 3? And hands up, would any supporter have really envisaged – if asked on March 11 – not being allowed in (a cardboard cut-out, though a nice touch, does not count!) to watch their team when Pompey next played?

When Kenny Jackett’s side take on Oxford United in the first leg of their League One play-off semi-final, they will run out at a virtually deserted Fratton Park. What would have seemed inconceivable just 20 weeks ago will be sobering reality.

The world has changed since Pompey last played. It might, or might not, ever be the same again, it’s too early to tell. But for the families of more than 41,000 people who have died during the pandemic, life will never be the same. For George Floyd’s family, ditto.

As Britain’s hideously high death rate starkly illustrates, and despite what the legendary Bill Shankly once said, there are more important things in life than 22 people kicking a ball up and down a pitch.

I have read on social media in recent weeks comments along the lines of ‘football shouldn’t be restarting when there are still people dying’.

Those people are entitled to their opinion, but they are totally wrong. To follow that logic, the public shouldn’t be doing anything outdoors – playing golf, tennis, going fishing, shopping, going to the beach. We should all just stay indoors until November and be scared out of our wits by the non-stop negativity of the BBC and ITV national news.

No, it is a much-needed – God, is it much-needed – bit of good news, great news actually, that professional football is back. We should rejoice. And Pompey fans, get this – you’re among the fortunate ones. I’m another lucky soul as well, in that at least my club (Exeter) are, like Portsmouth, being given a chance to win promotion through the EFL play-offs.

That’s unlike clubs like Tranmere and Stevenage, who weren’t given the chance to avoid relegation. Then again, those clubs had many chances this season to win games and get themselves out of danger and didn’t take enough of them.

Those clubs will bleat ‘it’s not fair’. Of course it’s not! Life’s not fair. My kids didn’t get the chance to sit their GCSE and A-level exams this summer. That’s not fair. More than 41,000 people have died as a result of the pandemic; I’m sure their families don’t think that’s fair either, and they’re right.

My partner lost her job because of Covid-19. George Floyd lost his life because a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes in daylight.

Read my lips – LIFE IS NOT FAIR.

Staying with football, it’s not fair either that a large swathe of the non-league pyramid had their seasons null and voided by the Football Association. It seemed the governing body couldn’t wait to shatter dreams, punish successful clubs and reward the failure of others, acting with seemingly indecent haste virtually as soon as Boris Johnson announced lockdown on March 23.

US Portsmouth, Moneyfields Reserves, Moneyfields Women and Infinity – based at Knowle Village near Fareham – all saw their (very) realistic promotion hopes punctured by an organisation which is supposed to be promoting the game.

If it’s good enough for Portsmouth’s division to be decided by a points-per-game methodology, it’s good enough for US Portsmouth’s division too. Both clubs are members of the FA, they both play by the same rules. I’m looking for a reason as to why they should be treated differently – other than money – and I haven’t found one yet.

Yes, yes, I know – it’s ‘only’ football. But millions of people love the sport. It matters to the lives of those who love it. It matters that it’s back, even if we’re not currently allowed in to support our clubs.

The phrase which has really annoyed me during lockdown is ‘a new normal’. It’s a ‘temporary’ normal, that’s all. One day, life will return as we knew it. We won’t have to stand in a huge queue for Primark any more, we won’t have to wear masks on the bus. We will be in the stadium, in our seats, moaning and complaining when our football clubs suffer a miserable loss, just like we’ve always done.

It will be wonderful, especially the moaning and complaining ... because I’m a football fan, and that’s in our DNA; that’s what we do, and I can’t wait to do it again.