HOW SHORT- TERM PAIN CAN BRING LONG- TERM GAIN

Special feature: Express Sport’s blueprint for saving our national sport amid pandemic

Coronavirus is the biggest problem facing the world at the moment but it could provide football with its greatest opportunity. Most importantly, as MATTHEW DUNN explains, it gives the game the chance to do the right thing and end competitive football across the world right now until governments have managed to get to grips with the crisis.

EURO 2020 WOULD TAKE PLACE ONCE ALL THAT IS DONE, CULMINATING IN A WEMBLEY FINAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

While coronavirus grips the globe, chances are at least one of the 12 host cities will be a viral hot- spot this summer. That could lead to ad- hoc venue changes, causing travel chaos or matches being oplayed behind closed doors. Better to delay. Football needs to get used to having its international showpiece at the end of the year.

EUROPEAN FOOTBALL BECOMES A SUMMER SPORT FOR TWO YEARS, WITH SEASONS RUNNING FROM FEBRUARY TO NOVEMBER.

No postponed matches in the depths of winter. No festive season travel chaos. All European leagues brought into line. Even scope to play the African Nations Cup out of season. Many of the problems of the modern global calendar solved in one fell swoop.

WORLD CUP 2022 TAKES PLACE AT THE END OF A EUROPEAN SEASON RATHER THAN RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE IT.

Football’s next big headache – how to squeeze the Qatar winter tournament into the current calendar – cured automatically.

Voila! The beauty is the new scheme can help football even if the consensus is that it should return to being a winter sport.

To get back to the current calendar, a shorter season could then run from January to July. Smaller leagues, fewer teams in each division. Was not that one of the things former FA boss Greg Dyke’s infamous commission was supposed to find to give our players a better chance internationally?

Moving forward, we would then be entering a world where fixture congestion is a thing of the past. There is proper time for a winter break, the FA Cup can live again and nobody boots the League Cup out into touch.

UEFA can even have all three of its blessed club competitions while international football is allowed to thrive.

There may be no cure yet for coronavirus, but football could be saved.

All it takes is two things:

Selfless understanding from players and agents over contracts, which are generally fixed to expire on June 30 of each year, enabling squad stability over the new periods.

Strong forward- thinking leadership from within the game.

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A German fan says he will exchange his tickets for toilet paper