FOOTBALL has never been in a situation like this before. Full seasons, at least not on a continental and global scale, have never been indefinitely postponed like they have been over the past week. Of course, society currently faces far bigger troubles than working out how to finish a football season, but the coronavirus crisis has exposed some glaring flaws in the sport.
A big part of the problem football faces right now concerns a lack of time. In most leagues, there is still two to three months of competitive fixtures to be played before this summer’s European Championships. After that comes the customary pre-season schedule followed by the start of the 2020/21 season. If the current disruption is to last into the summer, as has been widely predicted, it’s difficult to envisage how all these commitments can be carried out.
This has led to discussions over the voiding of league campaigns, the postponement of Euro 2020 and the delayed start of next season. Tuesday’s UEFA emergency meeting, called in light of this unprecedented tangle of competing interests and agendas, will go a long way to determining what happens next.
What is already clear is that football must address the overwhelming number of fixtures in its calendar. Even if the Premier League and its European counterparts were to miraculously resume play at the start of April, as is currently planned, an extension to the season would be required. Clubs can’t even take two or three weeks off without there being a devastating knock-on effect.
Why the rush to make a definitive decision on the final outcome of the Premier League and SPFL seasons? Surely we should wait until it’s impossible to play the fixtures and at that point make a call?
— Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven) March 14, 2020
Of course, football was already reaching breaking point before the coronavirus crisis. Liverpool were forced to field a youth team for a Carabao Cup quarter final against Aston Villa due to their commitments in the Club World Cup. It was one or the other as Jurgen Klopp’s men were asked to be in two places at once.
Manchester City were already facing a fixture pileup due to their success in the Champions League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup. The top clubs are asked to play so many games that it has now become borderline logistically impossible to succeed in every competition. This is the reality that has hit Pep Guardiola and his players this season.
It’s likely the coronavirus crisis will prompt football to look inward at a number of practices that have been subsequently exposed and this is where a streamlining of the sport’s calendar must occur. The current situation has only underlined just how unsustainable the fixture list is. Compromises must be made.
This could happen in the scrapping of the Carabao Cup, or at the very least in the scrapping of some fixtures. Is there really any need for the semi final to be a two-legged affair? By the same token, are FA Cup replays truly necessary? Could the third round be moved to earlier in the season to avoid the busy period just after Christmas and the new year?
Football is asking too much of its players, coaches and even fans. More and more fixtures are being piled on. Last year, for instance, saw the introduction of the UEFA Nations League while a newly expanded Club World Cup featuring 24 teams is set to take place in the summer of 2021. Rather than streamline its calendar, the sport is trending in the opposite direction.
It might seem counter-intuitive to suggest at a time when football has been put on hold across the world, when fans are craving the sight of a white ball on green grass, but through a wider scope it is still possible to see that there is too much football. The last week has exposed this and if lessons are to be learned from the coronavirus crisis this must be one of them.
