Lockdown forces football to play waiting game
london — 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 that nobody can say with any certainty when the sport might return.
A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow on Thursday, 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 altogether, 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 United Kingdom 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 impact of the current situation means many people may well now 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.”
Yet his club are among those who have been worst hit by the suspension, given that they stand on the brink of winning the English title for the first time in 30 years.
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin remains hopeful this season can be completed eventually
In England, football will not return until it is “safe and appropriate”to do so, authorities have said.
Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, has also said that 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”.
The damage caused by Covid-19 has been dramatic. Even players are not worrying about returning to action.
Leading football players and figures -- from Juventus and France star Blaise Matuidi to Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta
-- have tested positive for the virus. Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz died.
Liverpool are on the brink of winning the Premier League title, but their manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted that football matches “really aren’t important at all” just now
Euro 2020 was postponed by a year, as was the Copa America.
Players at top sides have taken pay cuts, of 70 percent 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 impact of this crisis.