Football continues to play the waiting game

A month has now passed since the last football matches were played before packed stadiums in Europe, and the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic means no-one can say with any certainty when the sport might return.

A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow on March 12 to see Rangers lose 3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League.

Other matches that night were played behind closed doors, or postponed as Italy announced its death toll from the virus had passed 1,000.

Fast forward 31 days and the figures make for grim reading throughout Europe, with Italy, Spain, France and the UK the worst hit. Countries across the continent are now weeks into restrictive lockdowns. Nobody knows when sport will be allowed to restart behind closed doors, let alone before crowds.

The psychological effect means many people may well have second thoughts about mixing with vast crowds at a football match in future.

In any case, as Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted when the Premier League season was suspended on March 13: “Today, football and football matches really aren’t important at all.”

In England, football will not return until it is “safe and appropriate” to do so, authorities have said.

However, Uefa, the governing body for the game in Europe, has remained optimistic about the prospect of finishing the season and is working on the possibility of playing in July and August if need be.

Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, has also said there is “no way” Liverpool should be denied the Premier League title and suggested that “in case the matches cannot be played, we will need to find a way”.

Scrapping a season that was close to its conclusion would not make sense, but it remains to be seen if the campaign can resume.

“No match, no competition, no league is worth risking a single human life,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino has said.

Leading players and figures — from Juventus star Blaise Matuidi to Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta — have tested positive for the virus. Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz died.

Euro 2020 was postponed by a year, as was the Copa America. Players at top sides have taken pay cuts — of 70% in the case of Barcelona.

While idle players are stuck at home, trying to follow fitness programmes in their front rooms or gardens, many wonder if football will be profoundly changed because of the financial effect of this crisis.

“The economy will be different and so will football. Maybe it will be better,” Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti told Italy’s Corriere dello Sport.

That remains to be seen.