The coronavirus (COVID-19) has directly impacted the soccer world in terms of league suspensions and the health of players, owners, and managers.
So far, 11 players including Daniele Rugani (Juventus), Timo Hubers (Hannover), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea), Manolo Gabbiadini (Sampdoria), Omar Colley (Sampdoria), Albin Ekdal (Sampdoria), Antonino La Gumina (Sampdoria), Morten Thorsby (Sampdoria), Jannes Horn (Hannover), Patrick Cutrone (Fiorentina), German Pezzella (Fiorentina) have gotten the disease in addition to Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta and Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest Club owner Evangelos Mainakis.
In addition, several leagues around the world have been suspended including the MLS, most Asian leagues, all Champions League and Europa League games, as well as almost every major league in Europe including in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and England. This leaves just Liga MX of Mexico, leagues in Africa and South America and Ronaldinho’s prison league in Paraguay in which the Brazilian soccer legend scored five goals and had six assists in one match.
The COVID-19 outbreak has the European Leagues in a massive debacle over what to do regarding the season with the Euro 2020 coming up in the summer. The Telegraph reported that UEFA will have an emergency meeting discussing whether to move the Euro’s to the winter of this year or next summer as there is no major tournament coming up. The decision at this meeting will place leagues around Europe on their toes as if the Euro’s get postponed then leagues will be able to finish in May or June presuming the virus calms down by that time. If not, the other major option reportedly being discussed is leaving the results of this season completely null and void meaning no teams will be relegated or promoted from one league to another and no teams will be able to hoist a league title.
MLS, on the other hand, will have much more flexibility over their season as they have a much greater time table to work with. The MLS season does not usually end until December so the natural solution for the league would be to resume the season as scheduled whenever it is deemed safe to do so by public health officials. In the process, that would mean canceling the games that were to take place during the days of the virus and play out the remaining scheduled fixtures past the 30-day suspension.
