Halting football before ban may have saved lives

The decision to suspend professional football in England before the Government formally banned mass gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic was a potential lifesaver, according to an epidemiologist from the University of Edinburgh.

The Government has been criticised for allowing racing’s Cheltenham Festival and the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid Champions League match to go ahead in the week beginning 9 March.

The English professional game decided to suspend competition on 13 March ahead of a round of matches that weekend, but that decision was made following positive tests for Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Chelsea forward Callum Hudsonodoi, rather than following Government advice, which only changed the following

Monday when Prime Minister Boris Johnson said emergency workers would no longer support such events.

The decision to suspend meant 45 matches due to be played in the Premier League and EFL that weekend did not take place, and Dr Rowland Kao from the University of Edinburgh says that was potentially a very significant and important call.

Asked whether there would have been a negative impact of those matches going ahead, Dr Kao said: “There’s a good chance, yes. There’s no guarantee with the number of infected people in the country at that time that somebody [with the infection] would have been there. But if someone had been there and been infectious, there was a potential for very large amounts of spread. Broadly speaking, the more things we would have done of that nature [banning mass gatherings], the better off we would be likely to have been.”