10 day breaker would have helped save Boxing Day games and Premier League season

Football should have been called off at all levels this weekend to save the Boxing Day programme.

Brentford manager Thomas Frank is right.

If this weekend's fixtures and next week's League Cup ­quarter-finals were ­postponed, it would be our best chance of preserving one of the best days on the football ­calendar.

A 10-day circuit-breaker would have given clubs a realistic chance to restore a clean bill of health among their playing squads and at training grounds.

And if that enabled Boxing Day games to go ahead - one of the most eagerly-­anticipated dates on the fixture list among players and fans - it's a suspension that would be worth serving.

As the Omicron variant causes other parts of society to shut down, there was a chance for football to take responsibility and show leadership.

At Macclesfield, we don't have a game this weekend and we trained on Thursday evening with a fully-fit squad who had all tested negative.

But with a 4,000 crowd ­expected for our next match on December 27 against Winsford United, we have given the ­players individual fitness ­programmes to follow, told them to stay at home with their ­families and restrict mixing with other households. Parties are off-limits. I have told them that if they go out in groups, putting their own health and others at risk, they will be fined.

That's not me being big-time as a director of football. That's a ninth-tier club trying to run along commonsense lines.

At face value, this Covid ­outbreak currently seems to be more prevalent at Premier League clubs, with all their resources and stringent testing ­protocols.

You might ask how a North West Counties League squad of 25 players, and a full Under-16s group, can all test negative when ­Premier League players are contracting Covid?

My understanding is that they are tested rigorously and often but if this latest variant is highly transmissible, it will spread in dressing rooms and a training-ground environment.

Premier League clubs are not exempt from positive cases, but they do have the testing ­resources to detect them.

What I do know for certain is that it's vital football gets it right in response to Omicron.

There is already little wriggle room in the fixture schedule for 2022 because the World Cup kicks off in Qatar mid-season next November.

Any major delays, and ­subsequent fixture pile-ups, will cause major headaches for ­England coach Gareth ­Southgate, and for Wales and Scotland if one of them comes through the play-offs.

It's a difficult situation, and we don't want to go down the road of null-and-voiding leagues, or settling promotion and relegation on points-per-game calculations, as happened 18 months ago. But the pandemic took a huge toll on football last year: We can't have more clubs going to the wall.

For Macclesfield, even at our level, a bumper Boxing Day game will probably be worth upwards of £30,000 in ticket sales, the club shop, food and drink.

Those revenue streams disappear if we carry on into the teeth of the Omicron storm, get shut down in the New Year and the gates have to stay locked. Another complete shutdown would be a devastating blow felt all the way to the top of the ­pyramid.

Closing down for 10 days before Christmas wouldn't have been about saving the ­Premier League or EFL. It would have been about football giving itself a chance to lay on festive ­entertainment for the fans. And it might have just saved the ­season.