What planet are UEFA living on?
ARE DIMWITTED UEFA LIVING ON?
It points to the potentially catastrophic scale of the financial fallout from this killer virus as broadcasters around the world examine the fine print of contracts
They know there’s no chance of the ball coming back out this season but they’re so scared of losing a fortune they’re not dealing in reality
IT’S been 10 days since this newspaper first revealed the likely impact of the coronavirus crisis on football in the UK.
In that time almost everything else about our daily lives has changed immeasurably. The fact remains this game of ours, which means so very much to so very many, will most probably be locked down until August, perhaps even later than that.
As unpalatable as this prospect may seem, it’s worth reiterating as the time has come to accept the reality as well as to confront it and deal with its inevitable consequences.
The truth of the matter is too many of those in charge of football all across Europe have been in a state of denial up until this point.
UEFA, for example, appear to be clinging to the belief the ball can come back out of the cupboard in just a few weeks from now to enable the Champions League and Europa League to be completed over the months of April, May and June.
If ever there was a time to ask what planet these people live on then it is surely now.
Likewise, down south, England’s Premier League is officially on hold until April 30 but a “best-case scenario” plan is being drawn up that would see this season’s leftovers served up from the start of June.
All this comes at a moment in time when the medical advice suggests this global pandemic will not even have reached its peak in Britain by then, let alone eased to the extent life might be able to return to some sort of normality.
In Italy, some remain adamant Serie A matches could begin again as soon as May, which is bordering on moronic given the latest figures which show around 793 deaths from COVID-19 across the country on Saturday alone.
It all begs a couple of obvious questions. Why exactly are the football authorities across Europe and beyond so stubbornly reluctant to accept what seems so obvious to the rest of us?
What is scaring them into a collective state of dim-witted denial?
The answer almost certainly comes in the shape of pounds, pence and euros and it points to the potentially catastrophic scale of the financial fallout from this killer virus as broadcasters around the world start to examine the fine print of their contracts.
Ironically enough there’s some good news here at least where Scottish football is concerned given that our game is the poor man of Europe as regards the worth of our TV deals.
The paltry sums we earn from flogging our live matches means we are not exposed to anywhere near the kind of existential levels that are now dragging so many others to their wits’ end, none more so than UEFA itself.
BT Sport is currently shelling out around £400million a year for the rights to broadcast Champions League and Europa League matches across the UK.
Multiply that sum by the 50-odd separate deals involving all of the other member countries, then add in further multi-million dollar packages with broadcasters in the USA, Australia and the Far East.
Then you start to realise why there is such a desperation to carry on kicking a ball at a time when the world is fighting for its life.
It’s a similar nightmare scenario for the cash-laden domestic leagues in the likes of Italy, Spain and, of course, England where the Premier League will rake in almost £10billion of TV cash over the next three years.
By way of stark contrast, Sky’s record-breaking deal with the SPFL, which is scheduled to kick in from the start of next season, is believed to be worth around £30m a year.
In relative terms that’s a shed load of money for our clubs but it pales into insignificance when compared to the vast sums being pumped into football’s bloated bank balances across the rest of the European game.
In other words, even if BT and Sky do instruct the lawyers to go after the SPFL in the increasingly likely event this season does have to be brought to a halt without being completed, then the Scottish game ought to be better able to cope with the consequences than almost all of the others.
The hope on Hampden’s sixth floor is that what will be an absolute car crash in other countries could be limited to a bump in the road in ours.
That’s not to underestimate the difficult times ahead for the Scottish game. If football cannot come out of cold storage until August or perhaps even September then there will almost certainly be casualties along the way. It’s hard to imagine all 42 league clubs will be able to survive such a prolonged lockdown without access to any matchday revenue.
However, the Chancellor relieved a great deal of anxiety on Friday when it was announced that the Government will pick up the tab for 80 per cent of wages up to a cap of £2500 per month.
Unlike in England’s scatter-cash Championship, that assistance will be more than enough to cover the running costs of most clubs outside of the top flight – and perhaps even one or two of Scotland’s current big 12.
If English football really is left with no other option than to man the life rafts and slash costs across the board, then it stands to reason there may be all manner of bargains to be had when our own clubs are ready to step back into the transfer market, whenever that day may come.
The smart money right now is on UEFA being forced into blinking first and that, when they do, a sense of reality might finally return to the picture.
Having scrapped Euro 2020 this summer they immediately threw the ball back at leagues across the continent by instructing them to finish their own domestic business before the end of June. The no-can-do response they have received from most quarters ought to have kicked that fantasy firmly into touch.
Perhaps the time has come for football to take its medicine.