On the long list of important things affected by Covid-19, a late promotion push by Hungarian second division team Vasas FC is probably not foremost in your brainspace, nor was it in mine. Football is not just secondary right now, it’s so low down the list of priorities as to be near-irrelevant given the loss and disruption inflicted by Coronavirus. Still, I started this season so I’ll finish it with a quick update.

NBii is done for the year, finishing early and confirming current league positions as final. Meaning Vasas’s usual late promotion push is done.

Given the quirks of the Hungarian system of licensing, there was still a slight hope that Vasas could get promoted by either Újpest flaming out of NBi financially or Budafoki not receiving a top flight license, but both of those scenarios seem to be receding into dreamland. It’s another NBii season for the Angyalföld boys.

It’s going to be a difficult situation for the team next year. The relegated NBi teams will have played a full season (which is still ongoing) against top flight opposition, whilst Vasas have to make do with lower-league friendlies. There’s also the question of how constantly being the bridesmaids in the promotion battle will affect morale in a team that’s had so much managerial upheaval in the last few years, not to mention an expensive new stadium that will again be hosting Dorogi and Szombathelyi instead of Ferencváros and Újpest. Holding on to key players will again be paramount.

It’s also going to be another year of upheaval for me personally, as I’m due to move back to Bahrain at some point this autumn. It would’ve been nice to finish my blogging here with a triumphant promotion (and maybe a win against Fradi in NBi), but it’s not to be.

That means I’ll be back to my old stomping ground of the Bahrain National Stadium and Al-Shabab FC. When I left Bahrain they’d just been promoted, now they’re teetering on the edge of relegation back to the Second Division. The universe simply doesn’t want me to see top-flight football.