The virus has put soccer as a whole, but given the billions going around especially Europe in a very dangerous situation. We now are talking about the current season at risk, leagues and UCL/EL, but there's no reason to think the next season can kick of at all. Although a Dutch company in Leiden, Janssen Vaccines, has received a billion $ from the States for it's development of a vaccine they expect it will not before september before clinical tests can be undertaken. So before the vaccin goes into production we will be far in the next year. As long as there is no vaccin, international football is not going to happen. So what is this going to mean to the leagues, the clubs and UEFA?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/barcelona-could-go-bankrupt-coronavirus-21857386 Barcelona 'could go bankrupt as coronavirus crisis and erratic policy takes toll' Barcelona have been holding discussions with players over taking a significant pay cut, while president Josep Bartomeu is under pressure following the resignation of six board members
And the first shots have been fired. https://www.reuters.com/article/hea...uefa-executive-committee-member-idUSL4N2CI1O7 Soccer-Virus can affect calendar for years: UEFA executive committee member April 30 (Reuters) - The COVID-19 crisis could hit soccer’s international calendar for “two to three years” and potentially affect the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Lars-Christer Olsson, an executive committee member of European soccer’s governing body UEFA has said. The novel coronavirus, which has infected over 3.13 million people globally causing more than 218,000 deaths, has wreaked havoc on the soccer schedule with Euro 2020 postponed to 2021 and national leagues and continental club competitions on hold. The Qatar World Cup is set to take place from Nov. 21-Dec. 18, 2022 and Olsson said it was a case of “wait and see” if the quadrennial event would be hit. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...ts-football-faces-three-years-disruption.html Now coronavirus could hit the World Cup: UEFA chief admits football faces 'two or three years' of disruptions... with the Qatar tournament in December 2022 at risk Coronavirus has brought football to a halt across the world in recent months UEFA chief believes international game could be affected for 'two or three years' That means the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be at risk due to the pandemic
Bang, and there comes a rock through the glass wall of BuLi ignorance of what the virus is about. 1FC Köln has 3 players now tested positive for corona. https://www.welt.de/sport/article20...orona-Tests-beim-1-FC-Koeln-den-Re-Start.html Torpedieren positive Corona-Tests beim 1. FC Köln den Re-Start? Stand: 11:57 Uhr | Lesedauer: 5 Minuten
The move from spring precautions to autumn apathy in Europe is complete... UEFA are making it clear they just want matches played. Romanian side FCSB has 15 players and at least 5 staff members diagnosed positive with Covid-19 and yet they are still forcing Slovan Liberec to travel to Romania and play them. The reason, Romania apparently has no health guidelines preventing the match, if it were in Czech Republic it would be canceled by the health ministry. Not only are FCSB being allowed to play despite an un-contained outbreak, they were allowed to temporally sign 3 players from other Romanian teams today to meet the minimum roster requirement, so they can possibly spread their infection to other clubs.
Liberec actually won 2-0. FCSB had the early red and one of their players went down injured fairly early too. I'm not denying their determination to make the most of the, but a team with over 15 positive Covid-19 cases shouldn't be allowed to play, much less host a team in European match. Slovan Bratislava had their Champions League qualifying match forfeited for much less.
UEFA also made RB Salzburg play Maccabi despite the latter having 10 Covid-19 positives during Champions League playoff. Liberec managed to get into and out of Bucherest without any players testing positive, but Salzburg now has several players testing positive and none of their squad will be able to take part in the upcoming international break.
I root for Israeli clubs, but I feel sorry if Salzburg had players get COVID-19 from Maccabi Tel Aviv. You have to say Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israel currently has four Maccabi clubs in Ligat Ha'al (the Israeli Premier League). Saying Maccabi is like saying Real that could mean Madrid, Betis, Sociedad, Zaragoza, and I'm not check if Spain has others. I hope Maccabi Tel Aviv is healthy now as they will host Qarabag in the EL on Thursday. You like Czech clubs, and Slavia Prague will be in Israel at Hapoel Beer Sheva. With Czech Republic's country coefficient 0.225 better than Israel's, the head-to-head games are important. For the last five complete seasons, the top two Czech clubs have close coefficients, the top two Israeli clubs have close coefficients, and the Czech clubs have coefficients about double the Israeli clubs. I'm surprised that the country coefficients could be close while the Czech Republic has two clubs much better than any Israeli club.
In addition to the four you listed, other current and former top flight clubs that officially have the 'Real' designation in the club's title include... Burgos Celta Vigo Deportivo La Coruña Espanyol Murcia Oviedo Racing Santander Recreativo Huelva Sporting Gijón Valladolid Unión de Irún (one of the ten clubs that played in the founding La Liga season of 1929)..
This CL/EL campaign is becoming ridiculous with teams having to play while about half their normal selection is barred because of covid. UEFA is more concerned to grab the TV money by forcing clubs to play if they still have 13 men standing.
Unfortunately, there is more inconsistency UEFA ahead of a Europa League match between Slavia Prague and Hapoel Be'er Sheva... Actually maybe its not inconsistent so much as the new normal policy of if you can still breathe go ahead. Slavia Prague's chairman: Jako prezidenta klubu me bez predlozeni Covid negativniho testu od UEFA na stadionu organizator UEFA nepustil ani do autobusu. Souperuv trener jde s pozitivnim UEFA testem na TK bez rousky a pozitivni hraci s tymem trenuji na predzapasovem treninku. Zvlastni doba.— Jaroslav Tvrdik (@JaroslavTvrdik) October 22, 2020 This is happening while Czech Republic is in the midst of the second wave of Coronavirus in Europe and increasing domestic restrictions: our league is paused for (at least) two weeks due to health department restrictions on sports participants - the only exception being international/continental competitions,. Apologies for the omission, I think I was actually copying the use of just Maccabi from a news source. I see people use just Prague sometimes when referring to Slavia or Sparta so similar confusions happen. We had some good coefficient years that are starting to age out and the last few years have been impacted by poor seasons from Sparta (they actually look strong this year) and Viktoria Plzen (still inconsistent). The biggest impact was last season as Slavia were in Champions League, and for clubs in smaller leagues your basically trade the chance for some success in EL (they made the quarterfinals beating Sevilla and challenging the eventual champions Chelsea 2 years ago) for the money/prestige of a competition you don't have the budget for (I think they managed a draw or 2 in a group with Barcelona. Internazionale and Borussia Dortmund). This year we need both Prague teams to advance and Slovan Liberec to get some points if we want to get back to where we spent most of the past few seasons (ranked 13-15).
I think the European gouvernments have to step in and tell no matches can be played with teams from abroad. The whole of Europe's map is coloured covid red. So allowing sport teams to travel across Europe to play matches is absurd.
I've said Slavia or Sparta without saying Prague because I think the first word is clear enough. Saying Prague would be like saying Manchester that could be United or City. I agree about the tradeoff between the CL and EL. I was fine with Maccabi Tel Aviv losing the CL Playoff Round because they will get more coefficient points in the EL Group Stage than the CL Group Stage factoring in the 4 bonus points for reaching the CL Group Stage. I checked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Madrid_CF_in_international_football and Real Madrid lost consecutive European Cup/CL home games for the first time ever! They lost 2-3 hosting Shakhtar Donetsk and lost 1-2 hosting Manchester City in the 2019-2020 Round of 16. They have played 440 European Cup/CL games with almost half at home, so that's over 200 home games. Furthermore, they lost 0-1 hosting Cadiz, so they lost their last two CL home games and their last two home games in all competitions with the loss to Shakhtar counting in both. They go to Barcelona tomorrow, and they're in danger of their first three game losing streak in all competitions at all sites since they lost their last two La Liga games in May 2019 and lost to Bayern Munich in the International Champions Cup (ICC). They last time they lost three consecutive games in all competitions played during the season was in February and March 2019, which included consecutive home losses to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey and La Liga. They last time they lost three consecutive games against different opponents in all competitions played during the season was October 2018 with a CL loss at CSKA Moscow and La Liga losses at Alaves and hosting Levante. After going to Barcelona, they have a CL game at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Well, the EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has told the EU member states to up their preparations for the vaccination campaign in order to be ready for the rolling out of the vaccin that is according to several sources due to be available soon/before the end of the year. The whole process of vaccination will however take at least the whole coming year. This makes the whole idea of the Euro2021 a bit silly.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/amp/55010011 Fans at sporting events: Maximum of 4,000 to be allowed in England