How Will The Coronavirus Crisis Change Football In The Long Term?

It took the global football fraternity a week to get to grips with what it was facing. The delayed response of the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and MLS among other leagues around the world to the coronavirus pandemic was an illustration of just how unprecedented the situation they faced was. There was no precedent for this, no protocol to follow.

Even now, with all major football divisions postponed until further notice, there is widespread confusion and speculation about what happens next. A number of options have been mooted. Some believe titles should be handed out and positions finalised on the basis of how league tables currently look. Others (see West Ham vice chairman, Karren Brady) want entire seasons to be made null and void.

Whatever happens, it’s almost certain that there will be a lasting impression to come from this crisis. Football, like many aspects of society, will be changed by what will be experienced over the coming weeks and months. Whether the sporting world starts spinning again in May, June, July, August or even later, coronavirus will make its mark.

English football in particular has been faced with the gross inflexibility of its packed schedule. This is something that had already caused issues this season before the coronavirus crisis. Liverpool, for instance, were forced to field a youth team for a Carabao Cup tie against Aston Villa when their Club World Cup commitments meant the Anfield club had to be in two places at once. 

Indeed, the rhetoric that the English football calendar is unsustainable was already growing. Now, with leagues and clubs facing the impossible task of taking two to three months break, there will surely be a drive to streamline future seasons. It has been suggested that the FA Cup and Carabao Cup could be scrapped in order to get the 2019/20 season finished. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one of the two competitions won’t return.

In many cases, league reconstruction could be a byproduct of this unprecedented hiatus. In Germany, for example, it has been suggested that the Bundesliga could be expanded to 22 teams for next season, with no sides suffering relegation but four teams coming up from the second tier. This would raise the question of whether 22 teams would be a better size for the Bundesliga. 

Broadcasting of the sport could also be changed forever by this current crisis. Initial discussions between leagues, governing bodies and governments, particularly in the United Kingdom, focused on the notion that matches would be played behind closed doors, but broadcast live or streamed online for fans to watch from home.

While most foreign nations permit the broadcast of most, if not all, Premier League games, native supporters are denied this choice. There remains a 3pm blackout on Saturdays, restricting fixtures played at that time from being shown on TV. If football in the UK is to return over the summer it will likely do so behind closed doors, and in that case the initial plan to broadcast all games could be activated. Having had so much choice, so much coverage, it would be difficult to ask broadcasters and supporters to revert back to the way things used to be after this.

There could also be changes to the way football is financed. At present, clubs operate with no safety net. Most leagues have no emergency fund for clubs that have fallen on difficult times. Now with almost every football club in Europe and around the world facing financial problems of varying severity, it could be the case that governments demand leagues to take better care of their members.

Right now, it’s difficult to know what will come tomorrow let alone weeks or months from now such is the speed with which the situation is developing. The impact coronavirus will have on football will be a mere footnote in the wider societal context, but when the crisis finally subsides a mark will be left on the sport.