Unfortunately this week any light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel seems to be slowly extinguishing as more countries have abandoned leagues this week and the announcement from FIFA’s chief doctor against restarting the suspended 2019-2020 season.

Despite the hopes and recent news that the French football governing body had met recently and voted to resume the season, France has banned ALL sporting events including those behind closed doors until September.

France will ease its coronavirus lockdown in May, but the 2019-2020 sporting season is over.

What is not known is how the French Ligue 1 season will end. If the season will simply be abandoned with no promotion or relegation and therefore no champions, or if it will be concluded based on the current standings.

The Dutch football association has also announced top flight Dutch Eredivisie football has been abandoned with no promotion, relegation or champions.

Furthermore, European football also seems more and more unlikely to take place with the warning from FIFA’s chief doctor against restarting the suspended 2019-2020 season.

“As a doctor I would be sceptical about continuing leagues amid the coronavirus pandemic” commented Michel D’Hooghe. “I feel it would be better to start planning for next season and avoid playing competitive football at all in the coming weeks.”

The European governing body UEFA has given the European leagues a deadline of 25 May to decide whether or not they want to complete or cancel their seasons.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, UEFA has already postponed Euro 2020 for 12 months as well as postponing the Champions League and the Europa League finals.

However it still remains the case that different countries have different approaches as to how football might start to be played again. Maybe, just maybe, and only if it is deemed safe by Governments and governing bodies, we may see some football somewhere before the end of the season.

References:
www.bbc.co.uk/sport
www.premierleague.com