How Covid-19 is affecting football around the world
As Covid-19 continues to spread to different countries, national governments around the world are implementing strict measures such as social distancing and quarantine protocols to curb the spreed of infection. As a result the sports industry is suffering devastating consequences. Major sporting events such as the Tokyo Olympics, NBA are getting postponed or even cancelled. More and more players are contracting the virus and the overall economic impact is daunting. As the virus continues to spread more of the world is being put on hold.
As we turn our heads to football, almost all of the major football events around the the world are also getting postponed. The MLS (USA), La Liga (Spain), Premier League (England), Seria A (Italy ) are just some of club football competitions postponing their matches till further notice. While countries are on lock-down, these national football leagues have no choice but to follow protocol. The football industry as a whole is getting affected in many financial, physical, emotional ways. It is important to understand that these effects extend to domestic and international players, teams, organisations as well as the fans and other interlinked industries with the sporting world
To begin with, Stadiums are risky places where fans are in close contact and even if one individual has the virus, the stadium can be breeding place for countless new cases. With no matches played, clubs around the world are facing many financial issues. A huge portion of the revenue generated by clubs comes from ticket sales and television viewership. Since no matches are taking place, stadiums are empty and no tickets are sold, so there is nothing to telecast. A single match can make a huge amount of ticket sales (stadiums have large capacities) and allow so many more people to watch online. It is no lie that as a result of the pandemic, both broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals will be seriously affected leading to a financial crisis. Another source for the revenue is the selling of official merchandise, but with lock downs in many countries and slowing economies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain sales. Clubs have to pay high wages to their players, but looking at situation at present, it seems clubs will soon begin to face many financial challenges. Postponements of International tournaments like the Euro 2020 and Copa America 2020, which take place every 4 years, can also affect host nations in ways which noone could have foreseen. Tourism and promotional deals may seriously impact these tournaments even when they take place in the future and the costs incurred to make these tournaments successful would be very difficult to overturn to make significant profits.
As we focus on the physical aspects, we can observe how major athletes as well as teams are getting infecting by the virus. Examples include Players and teams in many parts of Europe as well as China and USA. It has been confirmed that at least 35% of Valencia CF’s squad and staff have contracted the virus. Juventus and Fiorentina are some of the many teams in Italy which have confirmed cases. Big starts Paolo Dybala and Blaise Matuidi are other notable examples. These physical aspects lead to emotional effects as players are unable to play and fans unable to support their teams which takes some sort of an emotional toll.
However we must face the current reality. In times like these it is important to make right decisions and remain strong together. While we may not like it that the sport is on hold, we must realize that we are better off if this way so that we are better prepared to prevent a major catastrophe much worse than the current situation. Players around the world have led by example and urged their followers on social media platforms to maintain social distancing and quarantine by making videos of them bonding with their families and sharing fun moments.
It is in times like these that we are tested for our strength, perseverance and responsibility. In order to create a better future, we must put our present lives on hold and stay at a home as advised by our national governments. Football does not have to stop though . Use this time to have fun with family. Play fifa on your video game console, do trick shots with the ball in the living room, reinvent the game and hope that things will get better swift and fast.
