Football in the age of the Coronavirus

Sports are the most popular form of entertainment in the world – and football is the most popular sport ever. It has billions of fans all over the globe, gathering around the turf cheering their favourite teams and booing their opponents.

But there is something that may spoil the fun for the billions of football fans around the globe – something tiny but dangerous: the novel coronavirus. Its presence is already felt at the supermarkets in many countries where people panicking over its spread are hoarding non-perishable food like crazy. Soon enough, it may leave people with little more than watching the games on the telly or enjoying a selection of sports slots on their phones.

It already hit Italian football

The coronavirus outbreak has made its presence felt in the Asian sports world already – and now that it moved to Italy, it starts to wreak havoc there, too.

The virus set foot on Italian soil earlier this month and has begun spreading rapidly – it “chose” the best possible time, the Carnival season, when tourists from all over the world gather in Venice, for example, to witness the festivities. At the time this article is written, there are more than 400 confirmed cases, 17 casualties, and tens of thousands of people are quarantined.

The Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, FIGC) has responded to the epidemic by cancelling several matches in Serie A, all of them in the Northern region of the country, hit hardest by the disease. Italy’s sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora announced that at least some of the upcoming matches held in the country will be played with no fans at the stadium – Inter Milan also announced that it will play its match against Bulgaria in an otherwise empty stadium.

Germany, too?

The German Football League is closely monitoring the situation in Italy – and at home. While there were no specific steps taken just yet, the authorities and sports leagues of the country are on standby, preparing for the inevitable emergence of the virus in the country.

What about the UK?

In England, there are only 19 confirmed coronavirus cases (all of them brought home from abroad), and these don’t call for serious measures like in Italy. Then again, England’s friendly against Italy, set to be played at Wembley this March, may not happen.

Still, the authorities are prepared for the seemingly inevitable.

While no sporting events have so far been called off due to the virus, there are fears that they may be – and that it may even cut the Premier League season short. This would be bad news not only for the fans but the teams, too – with effects that would go beyond England, thwarting the chance of the Spurs to qualify for the Champions League.

The coronavirus outbreak has already let to the cancellation of several major sporting events – it even threatens the 2020 Summer Olympics – and impacted many others. Here’s hoping that its effect on the most popular sport in the world will be limited.