LIVERPOOL, - MARCH 13: Dusk falls over Anfield Stadium, the home Liverpool Football Club on March ... [+]
Liverpool’s dramatic elimination reminded us all why the star-spangled Champions League, alongside the World Cup, represents the pinnacle of the game: the competition always upends what one purports to understand about the game. On Wednesday, Liverpool’s victory was imminent and yet it never materialized. In an exuberant exercise of defiance, Diego Simeone, written off in a universe obsessed with possession and pressing, mustered all his cunning to stun and then knock out Liverpool.
For 120 minutes, the match reminded us that, even on the big stage, soccer remains a simple game, one that is to be enjoyed and never fully understood as a resplendently bullish Simeone demonstrated in abundance. It was the European Cup on steroids. The defending champions exited with a bang. But the outcome of the competition is uncertain.
For 120 minutes, the Coronavirus was out of the headlines, exactly on the day that the WHO, an unwieldy international organization, declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a pandemic. For 120 minutes, soccer fulfilled its main societal role as humanity’s most significant, soul-stirring pastime. Hours later, Juventus
On Thursday, soccer could no longer escape the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ pandemic. Real Madrid went into quarantine and a trickle of postponements became a flood. From Argentina to India, the sports world, and soccer, was suspended or even canceled. Soccer, in a reflection of society, doesn't seem to have an idea how to handle this health crisis. In a few countries, the virus outbreak prompted swift responses, but in the majority of countries, the response has been slow and hesitant. Soccer has been no different - until it was forced into action. The Premier League, in an act of English exceptionalism or indifference depending on one's point of view, was the last bastion to pretend all is well with the world. British soccer authorities suspended the season belatedly.
So many questions remain: Will Liverpool still be crowned champions for the first time in 30 years? Will Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United gain promotion to the Premier League? In Europe, those questions take on a whole different magnitude: What happens to the Champions League? Is Euro 2021 on?
This is a crisis that stretches well beyond suspensions and closed-doors orders imposed by various leagues and federations. On Wednesday, the Champions League hymn echoed around an empty Parc des Princes in the French capital. Yet, the drums and chanting of the PSG fans, who had gathered outside the ground, were audible. In a dystopian setting, Angel Di Maria’s 25th-minute penalty appeal felt almost out of context. Soccer, thus, is nothing without fans, but that is an assumption. In the Premier League, ticketing revenues account for about a seventh of Premier League clubs’ total income. The majority of top-flight English clubs even have strong insurance policies for loss of match day revenues. It needs little repetition that both English and European soccer's lifeblood is TV income.
It is a game of revenue of and profit, even if Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin pretended that it was not last week at his confederation’s congress in the Dutch capital with the slogan ‘purpose before profit.’
At the time, Uefa limited itself to a tepid press release to address the Coronavirus situation. A week has passed and UEFA has not shaken off that indifference. The governing body’s silence remains confounding. Nyon has called a meeting with ‘all stakeholders’ next Tuesday. Different scenarios have been mooted about the elephant in the room: the European championships. The now disgraced Michel Platini designed Euro 2020 in a pan-European format, a bad idea, even more so in a time of a global pandemic.
Will matches be shifted away from Rome? Will the tournament be played behind closed doors? Will the tournament be moved back a year? That last option pits Uefa against Fifa. The world federation plans to launch its revamped 24-team Club World Cup in China next year in a bid to generate a new revenue stream and tap into the lucrative club game. Euro 2021 would also clash with Uefa’s own women’s European championship and various World Cup qualifiers.
In principle, no solution should be off limits in Tuesday’s crunch meeting, but the global game has in recent years become increasingly fractured. Clubs, federations, associations, Uefa and Fifa have rarely agreed on anything. Can the European stakeholders agree on a solution that suits everyone ? Can they navigate a congested fixture calendar and the ultimate doom scenario, infected players?
On Friday, Arsenal
