CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FACES SUSPENSION AS TWO TEAMS ENTER QUARANTINE
The Champions League, the richest, grandest tournament in club soccer, and other top competitions faced an uncertain future Thursday as positive tests and growing wariness about exposure to the novel coronavirus continued to wreak havoc on the global sports calendar.
European soccer’s governing body said it would meet next week to determine the fate of this summer’s European championship, a sprawling tournament in which 24 teams would visit 12 countries. The Champions League faced the prospect of being suspended after Real Madrid became the latest of Europe’s elite teams to go into quarantine. More than a dozen competitions in Europe and the Americas have already said they will temporarily suspend play.
In Spain, Real Madrid confirmed in a statement Thursday morning that one of its basketball players had tested positive for the coronavirus, and that as a result all of the club’s sporting operations were being suspended. The basketball team shares a training facility with its soccer team, so the restrictions were applied to both teams.
On Wednesday, another Champions League contender, Italian champion Juventus, confirmed its players were going into isolation after one member of the squad, defender Daniele Rugani, had tested positive for the virus. Inter Milan, which lost to Juventus in a game held behind closed doors Sunday, announced a few minutes later that it, too, was suspending all sporting activity.
Soon after Real Madrid announced it was entering quarantine, Spain’s top soccer league announced that it was postponing the next two match days. Italy has already stopped its season temporarily, one of the many leagues and competitions around the world struggling to proceed with their schedules because of the global pandemic.
On Thursday, the top American league, Major League Soccer, announced it was suspending play for 30 days, effective immediately, and leagues in Portugal, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland and the Netherlands did the same.
In Europe, the Champions League, which annually features top teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris St.-germain, is in the middle of its round of 16.
UEFA, the European governing body for soccer, does not expect Real Madrid and Juventus to fulfill their Champions League fixtures next week. Real Madrid had been scheduled to face Manchester City of England, and Juventus was to meet French team Lyon in the second leg of its round-of-16 matchup Tuesday.
Though it was reported in Spain on Thursday morning that UEFA was set to announce an imminent suspension of the Champions League and its second-tier Europa League competition, no official announcement was made. Instead, UEFA announced that it would hold a teleconference with representatives of its 55 members associations Tuesday, as well as representatives of an association representing the continent’s top clubs and its largest players’ union, to “discuss European football’s response to the outbreak.”
“Discussions will include all domestic and European competitions, including UEFA Euro 2020,” UEFA said, a reference to the quadrennial championship set for this summer that is also under threat from the continuing uncertainty.
All options, from suspension to cancellation to delaying events like the Euros for a year, will be discussed.
The call was delayed until Tuesday because of the immense complexity in coming up with solutions while honoring existing contracts with various groups, including broadcasters and sponsors. For example, postponing the Euros for a year to 2021, which is an option, would create a major headache in figuring out what to do with sponsorship contracts, most of which expire in 2020.
Organizers of the Euros would also be required to extend contracts for 400 workers for another year and to redraw staging contracts with host cities and venues, and then come to new agreements with broadcasters.
But they also are facing a time crunch to play all of their postponed matches, crown champions and determine which clubs will be promoted — or relegated — to new divisions for next season. It is expected that every stakeholder will have to give up something to get the games played, meaning European competitions could be cut to singleleg fixtures, and some matches could be played on the weekends, a window long reserved for domestic play.
A person familiar with organizing a previous edition of the Euros described postponement as a “nightmare scenario.”
Pushing back the tournament would also threaten a clash with the inaugural edition of FIFA’S 24-team Club World Cup.
For now, UEFA is consulting with Europe’s national leagues to try to construct a cogent plan to deal with the effects of the virus, rather than the piecemeal approach being taken to date, in order to get the club season finished.
Games in the second-tier Europa League were scheduled to go ahead Thursday, though two fixtures involving Italian teams — Inter and Roma — and Spanish opponents were postponed Wednesday after the Spanish government refused to allow the Italian clubs to enter the country.