Soccer’s Strategy For Dealing With Coronavirus Is Patchwork At Best

The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on everyday life continues to evolve across Europe and North America and soccer is no exception.

The measures currently in force are far from uniform. We can only hope that governments and soccer authorities are taking advice from experts and their decisions are based on public health considerations rather than commercial.

Here is a rundown of some of the decisions so far:

• The Major League Soccer schedule in the United States and Canada is proceeding as normal but there is the real possibility that action by government authorities in some jurisdictions may override league wishes. (On Wednesday, the NCAA got out in front of the problem and announced that championship events will played “with only essential staff and limited family attendance.”)
• The game between Manchester City and Arsenal scheduled for March 11 was postponed – the only Premier League game to fall victim so far. However, there is already talk of restrictions including closed door games and a lifting of the UK TV blackout that applies to Saturday 3:00pm kickoffs.
• The next two rounds of fixtures in La Liga will be played behind closed doors.
• Ligue 1 is limiting crowds at games to no more than 1,000.
• All Serie A games have been suspended until April 3. However, the ban doesn’t include teams playing in international competitions.
• The Bundesliga fixtures are a hodge-podge with some games proceeding without restrictions while others will be paid behind closed doors.
• The Champions and Europa Leagues are continuing but the games cover a continuum from full spectator access to closed doors to postponement. Roma’s flight to Spain to play Sevilla in the Europa League on Thursday was refused clearance by authorities and the game subsequently postponed. Getafe’s game in Milan against Inter has also been postponed.

• Some countries plan to take advantage of the international break at the end of this month to play friendly matches and we already know that the intention of some is to play games behind closed doors.
• The playoffs for Euro 2020, set for March 26 and 31, have not been impacted….yet. The same goes for the pan-European hosted event that starts June 12 and finishes July 8.

You can understand that with three months until the start of Euro 2020 why Uefa may want to stall in the hope of some light at the end of the tunnel.

But for others, the problems are here and they are not going away.

Instead, the problems are mounting and the decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to characterize the virus as a pandemic only serves to reinforce the view that things are going to get worse in Europe and North America before they get better.

If that’s the case, then many of the measures taken so far will prove to be mere stepping stones to more draconian courses of action and decisions taken to date, may, in hindsight, look grossly inadequate.

Today’s postponements may morph into tomorrow’s cancellations. If that’s the case then soccer’s governing organizations and teams will face an even bigger logjam of issues and problems.

We will start to hear of teams struggling to pay the bills where paid attendance has been curtailed. No doubt teams have already been searching through insurance policy fine print in the hope that they can find someway of mitigating the loss in revenue.

Let’s not forget about the different forms of Financial Fair Play (FFP) and other licensing requirements some leagues and competitions have in place.

Surely, some dispensation will be required given the circumstances? (Uefa was asked if any leeway was being considered but at the time of writing there had been no response.)

Perhaps the one issue that would cause the greatest debate would be deciding champion teams across the leagues. Of course, leagues looking for a cop out could decide to nullify the season.

But there remains a problem of deciding which teams get nominated for European competitions next season when, hopefully, things return to normal.