LEYTON ORIENT have brilliantly found a way to protect their players but ensure games keep going ahead despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Following the decision to suspend all football matches in England’s top four leagues until early April, the O’s set up an initial 64-team tournament on FIFA 20.
On Sunday evening, the League Two outfit unveiled their plans to forge a video game competition, dubbed “Ultimate QuaranTeam”, and encouraged 63 other teams to enter.
But the incredible response from Twitter caused Orient to extend the tournament to 128 participants, with Premier League champions Manchester City involved.
The likes of Wolves, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Birmingham City, Reading, Millwall, and Burnley also expressed an interest, as well as teams from Ireland, Holland, and Belgium.
Luke Lambourne, media manager at Leyton Orient, told SunSport: “With no football on at the moment, we wanted to give our supporters something to get behind.
“We ran with a Football Manager thing on Saturday which went down really well, and wanted to keep it going.
“We saw the whole Connect Four thing over the weekend, and although it was fun at first, we thought it could be improved.
“After the media team spoke about it in house, we went for it, and the reaction has been superb.
“Myself and Dan Walker (media assistant) are both fans of FIFA, hence why the idea came about. We’ll be sitting out of this one though, and have someone in mind to lead the O’s to victory!
With everything around the coronavirus at the moment, it was important that we did something to plug the gap.
Leyton Orient
“We thought 64 was achievable, but that maybe 128 would be too high to aim for. But after a short period of time we’d already hit 64 – so we extended it, and have seen clubs from all over the world get in touch. From Finns Harp to Feyenoord!
“It’s still early days, so it’s hard to know exactly where it will go! With everything around the coronavirus at the moment, it was important that we did something to plug the gap.
“Clubs are really going to struggle financially during this period, and so far, people have taken to it really well – so let’s see where we end up, and hopefully clubs can get a big boost from this.”
Orient clarified that each club will choose a representative to play for them and it could be either a first-team player to a supporter.
But any team hoping to take part must already be on FIFA 20 and MUST play as their own team.
After hearing that, Palace winger and former Orient star Andros Townsend signalled his intention to control his virtual teammates for the Eagles.
An FA Cup-style draw for the knockout competition will be held on Tuesday, with the overall winner earning an away-day at City’s Etihad stadium.
SunSport had previously reported how Orient had held a Football Manager simulation to compensate for the postponement of their game against Bradford on Saturday.
Moving away from computer games, Southampton offered scheduled opponents Norwich a game of noughts of crosses.
But after the Canaries failed to take them up on their offer, Manchester City’s admin team jumped at the chance to compete against the Saints.
In a high-octane battle between the two Premier League clubs, the game eventually ended in a draw, with the Citizens quipping: “Decent point on the road in the circumstances.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
