Will Football catch the pace after COVID-19?

Messi scored his 700th career goal by converting
 a second-half penalty against
Atletico Madrid on June 30 at Camp Nou
Image Source : Reuters

Oh how have we missed football these past few months. True football fans have been waiting for actual football with all its intensity to resume since forever.

 

The UEFA Champions league is yet to resume and is set to be back on 8^th of August, 2020. It is been a struggle not only for all the players and fans but for the maintenance staff and other authorities.

 

On a big scale, this COVID-19 has impacted many lives and a lot of things have come to a halt. This has repercussions on a larger picture as well. Not only this season of football, but also the following seasons have to be pushed back and matches are to be played in quick succession.

 

Football after Resumption

After the long break of around a couple of months, it is obvious that all players and team will not reach the match fitness, as during the lockdown, players were home quarantined with their families. Players often get a few matches pre-season tour to get their match fitness back after the end of a season and before the beginning of the next one but now the matches are so congested and there is no time to accommodate all the friendlies that could’ve been played.

 

Of course few players resented coming to the training like N’Golo Kante and few of the Newcastle United’s players thinking about the safety of their families but after assurance and after a series of lots of tests, they are back running on the field.

 

Bundesliga(German Top Flight League) was the first to be resumed after the long halt followed by the Premier League and La Liga(Spanish league). Paris Saint German were declared the champions of Ligue 1(French League). Desperate football fans were happy to see this progress and were optimistic about their club’s performances.

 

New Regulations

Most of the clubs agreed to a more number of players on the bench and more number of substitutions. Instead of the regular 3, there are now 5 substitutes per game which can only be subbed on at 3 different intervals excluding the half time break.

There is a new system of cooling break that takes place in the game. In the Spanish and German leagues it takes place at 30 and 75 minutes of the game and in the Premier League at around 22 ½ and 67 ½ minutes which is about half of the halves respectively.

 

Fans, Stadium and the Atmosphere

Inter Milan and Juventus players playing
in front of an empty stadium
Image Source : Getty Images

The stands are empty. Football is not the same without its fans. Fake crowd noises are installed but it barely makes up for the actual fans. We can practically listen what the players are saying. The home advantage of many teams have diminished a lot and some would believe that’s unfair but isn’t the whole situation unfair to all of us? The referees now have less pressure on them as the crowd is not behind the home team which has made their tough job comparatively easier. With the support of VAR introduced this season, there is minimum error in judgement despite a few wrong calls lately in favour of teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid and some against Barcelona and Arsenal to name a few.

 

Players

As expected, the players are not fully fit and are facing a lot of injuries due to the long pause. Common muscle injuries like hamstring and muscle pulls are prevalent in the games and some players are forces to be substituted.

On the other hand some players who were ruled out for the rest of the season like Luis Suarez and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have come back from injury in full match fitness.

 

Competitions

Clubs like FC Bayern Munchen and Liverpool have dominated their leagues. It has been a stroll for them. After the resumption, Bayern were even stronger winning all of their remaining fixtures and picking up the Bundesliga title followed by their Domestic Cup title DFB Pokal. Liverpool stumbled a bit with a few draws and goalless runs after restart but came back to pick up their first premier league title in 30 years. The Spanish league leaders Barcelona went through a patchy phase with 3 draws and slipped up to the second position overtaken by their arch rivals Real Madrid who look in a good shape after restart. Teams like Leicester and Sheffield in the premier League also lost a few points whereas Manchester United won a series of games to close in on the Top 4 birth.

 

Champions League

The Champions League went on a break after the first set of matches in the Round of 16. RB Leipzig won their matches against Tottenham and Atalanta won convincingly against Valencia to go through to the quarter finals. Paris overturned the first leg results to beat Dortmund to the top 8 spot. But the pick of the results was the Atletico Madrid win against Liverpool to go through. The rest of the 8 teams are still waiting for their matches to be played on 8^th of August onwards. Barcelona will face Napoli in Camp Nou coming with a 1-1 result. Bayern call Chelsea to Allianz Arena with a 3 goal lead. Juventus call Lyon and would look to overturn their 1-0 loss and Manchester City would like to keep their European Dream alive by beating Real Madrid with a slender lead of 1 goal in their home.

The UEFA Champions League draw is out and is set to be played through the course of 8^th August to 23^rd August. Quarter finals, semis and finals will be played in the capital of Portugal and Lisbon awaits to crown the ultimate champion of the champions.

 

It is going to be a tough task for all the teams and to maintain their level of fitness against the elite teams of Europe. We hope this global pandemic stops as soon as possible and football shall return to its true glory.

The views expressed above are personal and belong to the author.

This post has been written by Anupam Singh.