GLOBAL SHUTDOWN
Postponements
on which he and his presidency rivals
cast such scorn four years ago. Sepp
Blatter and Jerome Valcke did not get
everything wrong.
Coincidentally, FIFA’s proposals include
a season-ending extension of contracts.
But that must depend on goodwill since
it would probably be unenforceable in
law. Also, as stated, no one knows what
is meant by “the end of the season”.
Further problems were created for
UEFA by the International Olympic
Committee’s long-delayed but inevitable
postponement of its Tokyo Games until
July and August of next year. Any thought
of running the 2021 Women’s Euros
straight after the men’s finals was kicked
out of the window. The Olympics is highly
important for women’s football so the
two competitions cannot overlap or run
back-to-back.
Also, since the Women’s Euros is
being staged in England it is impossible
to push it back into the autumn when
the Premier and Football League dream
of filling their stadia again. That takes
the knock-on effects of the pandemic
into 2022.
Europe is not the world – although
its football administrators often act
as if it were – but it is by far the richest
corner. It drives the international football
economy and the longer it remains in
lockdown the more extensively the
worldwide game suffers.
Playing the blame game has no value
as these are surreal times for individuals
and organisations.
UEFA was content to go ahead with
its congress in Amsterdam at the startof March, though subsequently the FA
presidents of Serbia and Switzerland
both contracted the virus. As Italy and
Spain began to suffer so UEFA still
went ahead with Champions League
ties featuring Atalanta (v Valencia)
and Atletico Madrid (v Liverpool).
But fear was setting in. UEFA followed
several leagues in scrapping the pre-
match handshake then postponed the
Champions League returns featuring
Manchester City v Real Madrid as well
as Juventus v Lyon. Two Europa League
matches between Spanish and Italian
clubs were postponed because of thehealth controls and curtailing of flights,
while Spain postponed La Liga for two
weeks when Real Madrid’s staff were
quarantined after a coronavirus case
in their basketball side.
Denmark, the Irish Republic and
Holland called a halt to public sports
events and the English Premier League
was halted after Arsenal manager Mikel
Arteta and three Bournemouth players
were diagnosed.
UEFA summoned a series of video-
conferences which postponed Euro
2020 as well as suspending the
Champions and Europa Leagues. Four
Champions League second-round ties
remained uncompleted: Manchester Cityv Real Madrid, Juventus v Lyon, Barcelona
v Napoli and Bayern Munich v Chelsea.
The Final in Istanbul on May 30 was
postponed as well as the entry deadlines
for next season’s club competitions.
UEFA’s strategy was creating summer
space for national leagues to be
completed once the pandemic had
subsided, but that presupposed one size
fitting all. Three Dutch clubs – Ajax, PSV
and AZ – demanded that their league be
declared at an end. Ajax technical director
Marc Overmars said: “The league is dead.
Life is more important.”
The Belgian league went one stepEurope is not the world...but drives the
international football economy and the longer
it remains in lockdown the more extensively the
worldwide game suffersRestarted...the Olympic Games countdown clock in Tokyo