Coronavirus: suspended matches and postponed competitions

Coronavirus or Covid-19 has unleashed a global crisis, at all levels. Declared a pandemic by the WHO, the spread of the disease and the fear that it will continue to claim infected and human lives are causing more and more governments to take exceptional measures. Of course, football is no stranger to all this and so much National and supranational soccer organizations are paralyzing competitions, in some cases, and that matches are played behind closed doors, in others.

Until today, seven of the main leagues in Europe have closed their football with a scheduled resumption date of at least two weeks or indefinitely.. At the moment, this weekend you will not be able to see any of the 10 games of the 28th day of LaLiga Santander, the 10 of the 30th in the Premier League, the 9 of the 27th in the Bundesliga, the 10 of the 27th in the Series A, the 10 of the 29th in Ligue 1, the 9 of the 25th in the Liga Nos, nor the 9 of the Eredivisie. In total, 67 games, among which Athletic-Atlético or the Sevilla-Betis derby stand out, in Spain, in addition to Real Madrid-Eibar or Mallorca-Barcelona; Tottenham-Manchester United or the Everton-Liverpool derby in England; Bayern Munich-Eintracht or Wolfsburg-Borussia Dortmund, in Germany; Atalanta-Lazio, in addition to Bologna-Juventus or Inter-Sassuolo, in Italy; PSG-Nice or Montpellier-Olympique de Marseille, in France; Ajax-Twente or the Rotterdam Sparta-Feyenoord derby in the Netherlands; o Famalicao-Oporto and Benfica-Tondela in Portugal.

But it is that the paralysis of European football extends to the rest of the lower divisions of these competitions and, of course, to more leagues attached to UEFA. That is to say, they are many more parties than those 67 of the seven main European leagues. For example, in Denmark all football matches have been postponed for the next two weeks; in Austria, also the next two days of both the First and Second divisions; in Norway, football is held until April 15, until further notice, and it is expected that the first league game will be played on the first weekend of May; in Switzerland, the competition is suspended from March 2 until, in principle, March 23; in Romania, all official competition matches are suspended until March 31, inclusive; also in Greece, Scotland, Georgia, Ireland …

It is only played in Russia. The Premier League is the only one with some substance in Europe that will take place this weekend. Of course, the stadiums cannot exceed the capacity of 5,000 people, as the Putin government has decreed.

In countries like Sweden it will be decided what to do with the start of the league, scheduled for April 4. The last day of the Belgium Jupiter League will be played behind closed doors this weekend. Also behind closed doors in Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary. But it is that in the American continent, the situation is no different: the Colombian league and the American MLS have been suspended, and in Argentina and Brazil, behind closed doors. In Chile, without an audience from next weekend, and in Mexico, this conference will be held normally and the situation will be debated on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Soccer is paralyzed or put on alert practically worldwide, therefore. With what this supposes of economic damage. In Spain, LaLiga, chaired by Javier Tebas, estimates at 678.8 million the impact that the suspension of the First and Second Division competitions would have if the measure continues until the end of the season. The clubs would stop entering 549 million for television rights, 88 for subscriptions and 41.4 for box offices, according to the estimate made by the employers themselves. And in England they claim that the damage would reach 830 million euros. But it is that this goes beyond the local competitions. It should not be forgotten that the Champions League and the Europa League have also been postponed, and the Copa Libertadores, the Eurocopa is in the air, and the African Cup, the Copa América … Sport like the rest of sectors of the society lives in uncertainty.