The Earth will live to remember the year 2020 for one major reason. Definitely not because it kickstarted the new decade but how it witnessed the outbreak of the global pandemic (Covid19) which started as a normal flu outbreak in the ancient city of Wuhan in China.
For the records, COVID-19 was first discovered in the 1930s when an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens was shown to be caused by the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). But it just as stated that COVID-19 is a subfamily of Coronavirus that has some diseases as brothers (if you want to put it that way)
The first case of someone suffering from COVID-19 can be traced back to 17 November 2019, according to media reports on unpublished Chinese government data, but it wasn’t paid much attention to until it decimated sporting competitions across the world – then the earth knew there was a problem.
The focus of this piece is Football and for the first time ever, the world suffered a big blow of having all its sporting events suffer hiatus. It all began when the Authorities of Italian football suspended it’s elite football competitions due to the spread of the deadly disease in Italian cities.
Just when we thought we’ve seen it all, the English FA announced that the EPL has been suspended till the 4th of April. Also, the UEFA had to postpone it’s Nation’s Cup Competition that happens once every four years and incidentally, the year 2020 was supposed to witness the 2020 edition of the UEFA Euro Championship in twelve cities all across Europe.
The UEFA Champions League as well as some other football league competitions in Europe were suspended because of the pandemic.
Amidst the pandemic, three football personalities have lost their lives to the destructive disease. Former Real Madrid president, Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish manager, Francisco Garcia and former president of Olimpic Marseille Pape Diouf have all been killed by complications of COVID-19 – what more harm can this malady cause the world?
We will in this piece be taking to cognizance the damage the global pandemic has done to football apart from damaging health consequences it’s generating because obviously, its impact on the round leather game and to a large extent sporting world at large cannot be overemphasized.
Players’ Future Is Uncertain
Football seems to be the most sporting event that’s affected the most due to its complications apart from some major events getting suspended or postponed.
As it stands, some players were supposed to switch from one club to the other in the transfer market when the season comes to an end (June precisely) but due to the pandemic, some players and clubs will have to make some decisions and compromise so as to avoid a probable drama.
What the players and these clubs will do remains unclear as per transfers; moreover, the clubs that are currently in a financial mess (because they’re not playing, and sponsors have withheld their money) will have headaches to deal with when everything is back to not “normal” but “norm”.
The Losses of Broadcasting Companies
Kudos must be given to the agencies that report and broadcasts football matches for viewers to have operatic and eccentric feelings of football – they’re indeed the link between match centers and viewers at home.
No doubt, broadcasting companies have suffer significant loss during this period and some other sports channels may close when they become inept to recoup their losses. For instance, ITV has been able to save £40million to £50million due to the postponement of Euro 2020 but has, in turn, had its shares fall by 12.6%.
According to a report from Quartz, the rights to broadcast matches in the Premier League are shared by the two powerful Television Stations (Sky and BT), who have paid the Premier League and its clubs $5.8 billion for three-year packages. Here comes the problem, will broadcasting rights for matches be paid back to these companies if games paid for are not played? Because there’s absolutely no reason to pay for a service that was not rendered.
The Football Calendar Conundrum That Must Be Sorted
One vital part some haven’t been paying attention to is how the football calender will shape up when this force majeure eventually vanish from the world. Will the football calendar change? Yes.
It will change if the season is not canceled which makes one to ponder on what will happen to UEFA Champions League, Europa League, AFCON and some other International Competitions. Whether some agree or not, this epidemic that has become a pandemic will indirectly take its toll on the preparations for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The UEFA body have been meeting with concerned clubs to map out a plan on how the season can be concluded before June 30, is this really feasible? I doubt.
Another major blow COVID -19 has brought about is how the best players awards will be dished out to deserved players; how do you do that when the season isn’t completed?
The reality is that it’s not clear whether the season across different countries in Europe will be concluded hence making some of these meticulous countries consider rendering the season null and void (a bitter pill to swallow).
The NBA season has been considered so and preparations are being made for a new season when this disease leaves. Can’t that be adopted in football?
While we pray for the end of this pandemic, I wish every one of you safety and health, and I fervently hope that beautiful and crazy divine football is back as soon as possible so that fans can declare devotion for their heroes again.
