Will football recover from COVID-19?
Football around the globe has been suspended due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It was a decision made for the safety of the players, fans, and coaches and will definitely help prevent further spread of the virus. This is a time where we need to make sure we wear an N95 Respirator, socially distance, and wash your hands regularly. It might be tough to go without football for a while but it’s worth it to ensure everyone’s safety.
There are many reasons for the football league to be suspended as the total cases of the virus continue to rise. However, it’s important to remember that everyone is in the same boat so we’re not the only ones to be let down. Music artists are having to cancel concerts, authors are having to have book blog tours instead of going city to city, social gatherings are being postponed, and every other sport has suspended as well. It’s important that we pull together as a nation and get through these hard times.
At the time of writing, there are only handful of professional football leagues still playing games such as the Belarusian Premier League. However, all of the major European leagues including the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League have been suspended.
In some cases, a return date of the 30th of April has been set with the English Premier League currently working towards that date. Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely that football will resume on the 30th of April and this date will be pushed back even further, possibly into June.
There is also the possibility that the 2019/20 season will not be completed at all although there are many legal ramifications of that happening. Whatever the outcome, many football clubs are going to be facing an uncertain future. There is a lot of money in football so teams will be able to cope financially, but what happens if some of their best players get sick? Not only would they have to miss several games, their health could also deteriorate too. It’s likely that teams will have numerous insurance policies covering players so that if anything were to happen and players could no longer play, the team wouldn’t suffer but it’s still such an uncertain time. This technical guide can be useful when it comes to insurancing key players but who knows what will happen in the future. Will football be able to recover from COVID-19?
Players at many of the leading clubs around Europe including Juventus, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have agreed to either suspend their wages for a period of time or have a cut in their wages until they begin playing again. This will help their clubs to remain in a strong financial position but for some, even taking away player wages is not going to help them to survive. Even as the world is wondering when they can begin returning to work after COVID, so too are many of these top clubs.
We may see some of the poorer football clubs around Europe struggling to cope financially and this could have a knock on effect throughout the leagues.
It will be interesting to follow the impact of this enforced break in professional football on the transfer market. Many of the top players around the world were valued at £100 million or more and it wouldn’t have been a surprise to of seen a deal take place for this figure in the summer. However, that could now change due to the fact that many clubs have not been making any income during the suspension but still having to pay player and staff wages.
Will some clubs be forced into selling players they would rather have kept as a way to try and balance the books? In addition, will there be enough teams trying to buy players for any moves to actually take place? Then there are player wages to consider and will it be possible for clubs to offer the astronomical wages they have been in recent times? Will they resort to playing matches behind closer doors, away from the public via a live stream perhaps? Sponsorship deals are another area which will come under scrutiny as the companies currently sponsoring football clubs may not be in a position to do so again next season.
However, despite there being plenty of uncertainty one thing we do know is that football fans cannot wait for the sport to resume. Perhaps some of the changes which will take place due to the current circumstances will be good for the game. Nonetheless, there will be many aspects which remain the same and that includes enjoying a flutter on the beautiful game. The best online sports betting sites are up and running for business and you will still find all your favourite football betting markets available as soon as the football season resumes, a good place to start is with VOdds. They’re simply one of the latest Asian handicap betting platforms to hit the market and can offer users aggregated real-time odds from a massive list of difficult to reach Asian bookies. This continuously growing list of Asian bookmakers includes Pinnacle Sports, SBOBET, MaxBet, and many, many more. Now users can access VOdds through their website vodds.com, vodds.co or vodds.net, or simply use a VPN for uninterrupted access.
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