FOOTBALL
CALENDAR
RIPPED UP
C
oronavirus is no respecter of
people, borders or calendars.
This is the ultimate challenge
for all football officials,
whether at international, regional,
national, league or local level.
The rush for easy money by jamming
up the current calendar with a ragbag
of competitions meant that, come the
COVID-19 crisis, there was nowhere to
run. There are no spare days or weeks
or months in these short-sighted,
entangled schedules.
UEFA and CONMEBOL presidents
Aleksander Ceferin and Alejandro
Dominguez have talked, optimistically,
of the day when their international
club competitions can resume. Ceferin
understands that this is possible only
when domestic seasons have been
resurrected because instant income
will be needed by all the clubs, both
from TV and sponsors and
through the turnstiles.
Most major football
nations have seen
gatherings of any size
prohibited. Social and
entertainment events
have been cancelled.
Local travel has
been curtailed. Most
international flights have
been grounded and the
airlines are going bust.
There is no end in sight.
Jenny Harries, the Deputy
Chief Medical Officer for
England, posited in late
March that it could be six
months before the UK
returned to anything like
normal. And while “socialEuro 2020 and Olympic Games delayed until next year
GLOBAL SHUTDOWN
Postponements
W
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distancing” means no live crowds it also,
presumably, rules out all forms of bodily
contact sport.
So, tennis and golf would be OK. And
maybe cricket. But football and rugby
certainly not.
Stretch these doomsday forecasts
across Europe and football’s preferred
resolution of completing the season
will not be any time soon. As Kevin De
Bruyne has cautioned, the longer the
suspension the more time players will
need to regain appropriate fitness levels.
So, add in up to a further month.
World Cup qualifying ties have been
postponed from Asia to South America.
The Copa America and Euro 2020
have been pushed back a year to 2021.
UEFA’s eco-unfriendly, multi-venue
championship was always a joke. Now it’s
a bad one. That was not Ceferin’s fault.
But he is the man landed with MichelShut...football
grounds are set to
remain no-go areas
for quite some time