As COVID-19 finally seems to be disappearing in this country, and as we reflect on the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon and look forward to the World Cup in Qatar, let's take a look into the archives with one of the 2021 Fuller Research prize entries, and see how much of it proved accurate...
KAYAAN CHANDER
Covid-19 has imposed a significant impact on everything we have done in the past year, and still continues to do so. While the situation seems to be improving with immunisations and mass testing, the effect on football will be unforgettable: something that may never happen again. This leads us to the following question: "How did Covid-19 affect English football, both as shown on TV and behind the scenes?"
The first time coronavirus stunned the world was in February 2020, when global cases started to rise, leading to the first UK national lockdown in March. However, football was affected prior to the lockdown. The first occasion was in the Europa League when Arsenal were knocked out by Olympiacos. A few days later, it was reported that Evangelos Marinakis (the Olympiacos manager) had contracted the virus. This was a problem as he was present at the match, resulting in the Arsenal players having to be tested and then self-isolate. All players from Olympiacos luckily tested negative but Arsenal’s boss Mikel Arteta had COVID-19. This led to the training ground having to go into lockdown, causing their next match being postponed.
Personally, I believe that the way UEFA handled the situation was awful as Olympiacos had to play Wolverhampton only a few days later. Wolves manager, Nuno Santos, requested that the match was rescheduled due to the incident with Arsenal. Nevertheless, UEFA declined with the intention to finish the competition. This was the final match before lockdown, as the Champions league, Europa league, and all major domestic leagues became suspended!
"Project Restart" was the planned continuation of the Premier League on 17th June 2020, although it had many conditions fixed to it. The leading outcome was to finish the season rather than resetting and starting from scratch, which certainly caused debates amongst the fans. The restart also included resumption of the FA cup. Overall, there were 92 matches to be played over 6 weeks to give a small break before the start of the 2020-2021 season straight after. As predicted, this fixture congestion led to many injuries occurring. However, lower-table teams were impacted much more than wealthier teams due to the difference in squad depth as well as less physically trained players not being able to cope with constantly participating every game. An example of this was in the Arsenal vs Man City game where Granit Xhaka and Pablo Marí both suffered from hamstring injuries, but were able to be seamlessly replaced with other high-quality players. In contrast, Sheffield United lost 3-0 to Manchester United due to a lack of players, even though they had drawn 3-3 in their previous match against the same opposition.
The new 5 substitution rule also had a significant impact as better, well-funded teams (in particular the ‘big 6’) were able to bring on 5 outstanding players, giving them the advantage of stamina, skill, strength and more. On the other hand, lower-end teams had to use young, less-experienced players from their academy to replace flagging senior players.
This sparked lots of debates on social media about how the '5 sub' rule gave superior teams an unfair advantage. Some players such as Newcastle’s left-back Danny Rose were against the idea of Project Restart as a whole. He condemned the Premier League’s idea, calling it "a joke when there are still people dying from Coronavirus". He also mentioned that ‘he doesn’t care about the nation's morale,’ said morale being considered a justification for the continuation of international sport by many. Some fans supported his statements but others displayed anger towards them, leading to Danny receiving much abuse.
On a personal level, I don’t agree with Rose. I think Project Restart has been a great success to provide entertainment for people struggling with conditions and stuck at home. Also, the Premier League has spent £4 million on 40,000 testing kits to ensure the safety of players, coaching personnel and referees. From March 2020 up until now (Spring 2021), there have been around 80,000 tests and only 273 people have tested positive. This 0.3% positive test rate clearly displays the caution and care the Premier League has taken.
Now I’m certain many of you here were looking forward to the Euros in 2020. Nonetheless, we can ask ourselves whether it was a positive or negative thing for England that the tournament was postponed.
The Euros weren’t deemed safe at the time, due to being an international competition. Furthermore, as a special 60th anniversary competition, UEFA decided that Euro 2020 would be hosted collectively by several nations, leading to excess international travel - directly in contrast to coronavirus restrictions. Even if it had been able to go ahead, there wouldn’t have been many spectators allowed in: picture captaining your country to a European Championship win and then celebrating all your hard work with no fans. It’s possibly one of the worst feelings ever!
So, what’s coming next for English football? From my point of view, English teams will recover, allowing fans back into stadiums, despite the fact that it may not make up for all the income lost. Next season, the Premier League will finish without gaps, although it may begin later than usual due to the Euros being delayed. In this instance, the league may need to be rushed as a result of the World Cup in 2022! We have a great lineup of fixtures and tournaments to come. Hopefully it will make up for this global catastrophe.