Owing to the surge in new COVID-19 cases, the Beijing Municipal Sports Competitions Administration Centre announced on June 15, 2020 the suspension of the
2020 CSL season.[11] On 1 July, it was announced that the season would start on 25 July.
On 9 July, it was announced that the AFC Cup would return on 23 September and conclude on 12 December, with the group stage matches to be held in centralised venues.[12][13] However, the season was later abandoned on 10 September and was declared void the following day.[14]
In the AFC Champions League, the AFC announced that
Qatar would host all West Region matches after restart.[15]Al Wahda were unable to travel to Qatar to play their remaining matches of the group stage due to several team members testing positive for COVID-19.[16] They were considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all their previous matches were considered "null and void".[17] The same happened with the defending champion
Al-Hilal, when they failed to name the required 13 players and were unable to play their final match of the group stage against
Shabab Al-Ahli due to them having only 11 players left with the remaining team members testing positive for COVID-19;[18] hence, they were also considered to have withdrawn from the competition, and all their previous matches were considered "null and void", and would not be taken into consideration in determining the final group rankings.[19]
Qatar also hosted all AFC Champions League East Region matches after restart. However, Malaysian club
Johor Darul Ta'zim were unable to travel to Qatar to play the final four matches of the group stage due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions after they were denied permission to travel by the Malaysian government.[20] Their matches were considered "null and void" and would not affect the final group rankings.[21]
In Europe, various knockout matches in the
Champions League and
Europa League were played
behind closed doors in February and March 2020.[24][25] On 12 March 2020,
UEFA announced that the elite qualification round of the men and women's under-17 and under-19 youth international tournaments had been postponed.[26] The following day, UEFA postponed all fixtures for the following week in the Champions League, Europa League and
Youth League.[27] On 17 June
UEFA announced that the Champions League would resume in Portugal, and the Europa League in Germany, in August, but all rounds would be single-match affairs, with the exception of the Europa League round of 16 where the first game had already been played.
Many of the domestic European leagues were impacted in February and March 2020. After various fixtures were rescheduled or played behind closed doors,
Serie A was postponed on 9 March 2020.[28] On 12 March,
La Liga and the
Segunda División were suspended for at least two weeks after a
Real Madrid basketball player tested positive for the virus, which resulted in Real Madrid's footballers being put in quarantine as the two teams share the same training facilities in Valdebebas.[29] The
Eredivisie was also suspended (it was officially declared abandoned on 24 April with no champion awarded),[30] while
Ligue 1 and the
Bundesliga followed suit shortly afterwards.[31][32] Ligue 1 would eventually end on 27 April after the French Prime Minister ordered all sporting events to be cancelled until 1 September, with
Paris Saint-Germain being declared champions and on 23 June
Amiens and
Toulouse were relegated to the
2020–21 Ligue 2.[33][34] The Bundesliga eventually returned on 16 May following the suspension of play.
On 5 May 2020,
Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) chief executive
Neil Doncaster summed up the situation in his country during a video conference involving the
Scottish Football Association,
Scottish Rugby and others in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic; he stated that "gate receipts make up a far higher proportion of our income than in England, which benefits from huge TV deals, so until we get back to playing in front of crowds, our game will remain in grave peril."[42]
In June 2020, chairman of Premier League football side
Tottenham Hotspur,
Daniel Levy, revealed that the club has taken a loan of £175 million from the
Bank of England. The chairman said that money has been taken to tackle with the gripping effects of coronavirus pandemic on the club.[43]
On 30 June 2020,
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters announced £1,000,000 as aid for next seasons of the Women's Super League and Championship to mitigate the effect of coronavirus.[44]
The
Bundesliga became the first major European league to return following the pandemic on 16 May. In the subsequent weeks, many other leagues followed suit. The
Primeira Liga returned on 3 June,
La Liga on 11 June, the
Premier League on 17 June, and
Serie A on 20 June.
On 19 June 2020,
FC Rostov lost 1–10 against
PFC Sochi in the
2019–20 Russian Premier League, as they fielded their junior team, after six players of the senior team have been infected with COVID-19; hence, the whole team was quarantined.[45]
The Spanish
Copa del Rey final was originally scheduled for 18 April 2020, but the match was postponed with the agreement of both participating clubs (
Athletic Bilbao and
Real Sociedad) on 11 March (with no new date decided at that point), in the hope that the delay would provide time to contain the outbreak and allow the final to take place with a full stadium as in normal circumstances.[46] Despite this, the final was played on 3 April 2021 behind closed doors.[47]
On 1 July 2020,
Wigan Athletic fell into administration after being negatively affected by the pandemic lockdown.[48] By appointing Paul Stanley, Gerald Krasner and Dean Watson from Begbies Traynor, it became the first professional club in England to call up administrators since the pandemic had begun.[49] In addition, many small English football clubs were affected by the pandemic as they rely on ticket sales for revenue.[50]
On 1 August 2020, the
FA Cup final was played behind closed doors between
Arsenal F.C. and
Chelsea F.C. It was originally scheduled for 23 May, but it was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.[57] As part of precautions against COVID-19, Arsenal received the trophy on the pitch and not, as in previous seasons, by climbing steps to the Royal Box for the presentation.[58]
The schedule and the format of the
2020–21 UEFA Champions League was changed. The tournament would originally have started in June 2020, but was delayed to August due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[65] The new schedule was announced by the UEFA Executive Committee on 17 June 2020.[66] All qualifying matches, excluding the play-off round, were played as single leg matches, hosted by one of the teams decided by draw (except the preliminary round which was played at neutral venue).[67][68]
In the
2020–21 UEFA Champions League preliminary round, Kosovar club
Drita's match against
Linfield in
Nyon, Switzerland was called off, due to two players from Drita testing positive for COVID-19 and the whole team being put into quarantine by the Swiss authorities; eventually, Linfield was awarded a 3–0 win.[69] In the first qualifying round of the same competition, Faroese club
KÍ was awarded a 3–0 win over
Slovan Bratislava, in which the match was initially postponed after one staff member from the latter tested positive for COVID-19,[70] followed by a player from this same team,[71] eventually the whole team was put into quarantine by the Faroese authorities,[71] and KÍ were subsequently awarded a technical victory.[72]
On 17 September 2020, a German team, SG Ripdorf/Molzen ll, lost 37–0 against SV Holdenstedt ll in 3.
Kreisklasse. SV Holdenstedt II who came into contact in a previous game with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, refused to reschedule the match; hence, SG Ripdorf/Molzen ll competed with only seven men for fear of infection and did not offer any resistance.[73][74]
On 24 September 2020, the
UEFA Super Cup was played. The match was originally scheduled to be played at the
Estádio do Dragão in
Porto, on 12 August 2020.[75][76] However, after the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe caused the postponements of the previous season's Champions League and Europa League, the UEFA Executive Committee chose to award the rescheduled Champions League final to Portugal, and postponed and relocated the Super Cup to
Puskás Aréna in
Budapest.[67][77] The UEFA Executive Committee decided to use the event as a pilot match for which a reduced number of spectators, up to 30% of the capacity of the stadium, were allowed in, becoming the first official UEFA match to have spectators since their competitions were resumed in August 2020.[78]
On 4 October 2020, Italian club
Napoli decided not to travel to
Turin to play a
Serie A match against
Juventus, following the Azienda Sanitaria Locale (ASL) protocol as two of their players tested positive for COVID-19 along with a staff member.[80] On 14 October, Juventus were awarded a 3–0 win, and Napoli were deducted 1 point by the Disciplinary Commission as punishment for violating the
FIGC COVID-19 protocol approved by the Technical-Scientific Committee of the
Ministry of Health regarding the activity of professional athletes.[81] On December 22, the
CONI Guarantee Board, overturned the previous decision of the competition judge, accepting the appeal presented by Napoli against the defeat by default and the point deduction and stating that the match must be played.[82] The next day,
Lega Serie A postponed the match to a date to be determined following the decision.[83] On 7 April 2021, the match was finally played with a 2-1 victory for Juventus.[84]
On 23 December 2020,
FC Porto and
S.L. Benfica played behind doors the
2020 Supertaça.[85][86] The match was originally scheduled for the end of July or start of August, but was postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.[87]
In January 2021,
Arsenal received a £120m loan from the
Bank of England to help offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[88]
That same month took place the
2020–21 Supercopa de España. The competition was initially supposed to be held in
Saudi Arabia like the previous year, but restrictions related to the global COVID-19 pandemic forced it to remain in Spain. The semi-finals were played behind doors in the cities of
Córdoba and
Málaga, on 13 and 14 January 2021. The
final was played at
Estadio de La Cartuja in
Seville on 17 January 2021.[89]
On 13 January 2021, took place the
2020 Trophée des Champions. The final was initially supposed to be held outside of France, but restrictions related to the global COVID-19 pandemic forced it to remain in the country.[90][91] The match was finally played behind doors at the
Stade Bollaert-Delelis in
Lens.[92]
On 20 January 2021, took place the
2020 Supercoppa Italiana. The match was initially supposed to be held in December in
Saudi Arabia like the previous year, but restrictions related to the global COVID-19 pandemic forced it to remain in Italy.[93] The trophy was finally disputed behind doors at the
Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore.[94]
On 29 May 2021, the
2021 UEFA Champions League final between
Manchester City and Chelsea was disputed. The final was originally scheduled to be played at the
Krestovsky Stadium in
Saint Petersburg, Russia. However, due to the postponement and relocation of the
2020 final to Lisbon as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with the
Atatürk Olympic Stadium in
Istanbul, Turkey instead planning to host the 2021 final.[67] Two weeks before the final, UEFA announced that it would be relocated to Porto, Portugal to allow a limited number of fans to attend the match.[96] A capacity limit of 33% was agreed for the 50,000-seater
Estádio do Dragão, resulting in an attendance of 14,110.[97]
In December 2021, the
German government imposed measures which affected the
2021–22 Bundesliga matches. As a result, the
2G+ rule was implemented and clubs were allowed an attendance of up to 50% and a maximum of 15,000 fans into stadiums in some states, while in other states spectators were once again banned from attending games.[98][99] This also affected two matches in the
2021–22 UEFA Champions League –
RB Leipzig vs.
Manchester City F.C. and
FC Bayern Munich vs.
FC Barcelona – which were played behind closed doors.[100][101] Restrictions were later extended to all the country, limiting the number of spectators or completely banning the presence of them, up to and including the 9 February 2022.[102][103]
On 12 March 2020, the
CONCACAF Champions League was suspended with immediate effect.[106] All other
CONCACAF competitions scheduled for the next month were also suspended.[107] On 10 November, it was announced that the competition would resume in December and be played in
Orlando with single-leg, neutral venue matches.[108]
Also on 12 March, the
National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), whose
season was not scheduled to start until 18 April, canceled its preseason matches,[109] and also imposed a moratorium on team training that initially ran through 22 March.[110]
On 12 March,
Major League Soccer was suspended for 30 days.[111] On 19 March, Major League Soccer's suspension was extended to a target return date of 10 May.[112] On 14 April, MLS announced that it was "extremely unlikely based on the guidance of federal and local public health authorities" that they would meet this target, and stated that "our goal remains to play as many games as possible, and while we currently have enough dates to play the entire season, we recognize at this time that it may become difficult to do so."[113] The
2020 U.S. Open Cup,
2020 Leagues Cup,
2020 Campeones Cup and
2020 MLS All-Star Game were also all cancelled.[114][115]
On 20 March, the
Canadian Premier League announced a postponement of their season which was scheduled to start on 11 April.[116]
Match week 10 of
Liga MX,
Women's Liga MX, and
Ascenso MX took place but as of 15 March, club owners and league executives had then taken a decision to postpone all Mexican football activity until further notice.[122] As of 22 May, Mexican football executives announce the termination of the remainder of the current
Clausura 2020 championship.[123]
On 10 June, Major League Soccer announced a return to action on 8 July with a mini-tournament, called the
MLS is Back Tournament at the
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at
Walt Disney World near
Orlando, Florida, with all group stage matches counting towards the regular season standings.[124] The regular season was then resumed with fewer fixtures and reduced or no attendance allowed, with the
playoffs beginning in November.[125] Canadian teams in the league had to play the remainder of their fixtures in the United States, due to travel restrictions between the borders.[126] This would later continue through the
2021 season after travel restrictions continued to remain in effect.[127]
On 24 July, Liga MX inaugurated the 2020–21 Liga MX season, also known as
Torneo Guard1anes 2020. The season was dedicated to Mexico's frontline healthcare and medical staff.
Mazatlán F.C. debuted in Liga MX, replacing the dissolved
Monarcas Morelia.[128]
On 12 March 2020, CONMEBOL announced that the
Copa Libertadores would be temporarily suspended.[130] In addition, the
Copa Sudamericana have been suspended after first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be resumed on 27 October 2020, with the final rescheduled to be played in late January 2021.[131]
On 15 March, all top-tier football in Brazil was suspended until April.[132]
Academic research analyzes and compares the safe return protocols of major football leagues and associations to those of the Brazilian Championship, as well as to survey the numbers of COVID-19 outbreaks in clubs that competed in the 2020 Brazilian Championship Series A. The documentary research was carried out through the analysis of articles published on open-source football league and federation websites. National and international return protocols were verified, as well as the documenting of isolated cases and outbreaks of COVID-19 in the Brazilian Championship. In the Brazilian Championship, the return to play occurred at a time when COVID-19 case numbers were rising, a fact that, together with the decentralization of the match cities, was likely linked to the number of positive cases.[133]
Oceania
In New Zealand, the three main competitions, the
New Zealand Football Championship, the
Chatham Cup and the
Kate Sheppard Cup were all cancelled by
New Zealand Football. The
2019–20 New Zealand Football Championship season was concluded after 18 weeks, with
Auckland City declared the winner.[134] On 23 April, both the national Men's and Women's knock-out cups were cancelled a week before the preliminary rounds were due to kick off.[135] It was the first time the
Chatham Cup had been cancelled since the end of World War II.[135] On 15 January 2021,
FIFA announced that Auckland City had withdrawn from the
2020 FIFA Club World Cup, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related quarantine measures required by the New Zealand authorities.[136] On 4 June 2021, the OFC announced that the
2021 OFC Champions League had been cancelled, and no champions would be awarded for the second season in a row.[137]
International football
On 13 March 2020, FIFA announced that clubs did not have to release players to their national teams during the international windows of March and April 2020, while players also had the option to decline a call-up without any consequences. FIFA also recommended that all international matches during these windows be postponed, though the final decision was left to the competition organisers or member associations for
friendly matches.[138]
FIFA World Cup qualification
The
qualifiers for the
2022 FIFA World Cup was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, it was announced that
Asian qualifier matches due to take place in March and June 2020 were postponed to later dates.[139] The
South American qualifiers due to take place in March 2020 were also postponed to later dates.[140]
FIFA Club World Cup
The
2020 FIFA Club World Cup was postponed from 2020 to 2021,[141] as the AFC, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF champions would not have been decided in time for the tournament. Originally to be held in December 2020, on 17 November of the same year FIFA announced that the competition would be played between 1 and 11 February 2021.[142]
Originally seven teams were to compete in the tournament. However, OFC's representatives
Auckland City withdrew due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related quarantine measures required by the
New Zealand authorities. As a result, only six teams competed, and the first round match, originally scheduled on 1 February 2021, was awarded as a 3–0 win to their first round opponents, host
Qatar's representatives
Al-Duhail, who advanced automatically to the second round on 4 February 2021.[143]
Attendance was limited to only 30% of the stadiums' seating capacity.[144] A third stadium in Al Rayyan,
Khalifa International Stadium, would originally have hosted two matches, but following the withdrawal of
Auckland City and the subsequent revision of the match schedule, it was not used for the tournament.[145][146][147]
The
2021 edition was also affected by COVID-19 restrictions. On 4 December 2020, the
FIFA Council announced that the Club World Cup would be held in late 2021 and hosted by Japan.[148] However, on 8 September 2021, the
Japan Football Association dropped its commitment to host the tournament, owing to the possibility of restrictions on fan attendance due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.[149][150] On 20 October 2021, the FIFA Council named the United Arab Emirates as the host of the tournament, and postponed the event from late 2021 to early 2022.[151]
Also, on 4 June 2021, the OFC announced that the
2021 OFC Champions League had been cancelled due to border closures throughout the Pacific caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and no champions would be awarded.[152] The OFC representative at the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, which would have originally been the winners of the 2021 OFC Champions League, was confirmed to be
Auckland City by the OFC on 3 August 2021. The team was chosen by the OFC Executive Committee based on sporting merit principles, which used an overall ranking which took into consideration the final placing of each OFC Champions League between 2016 and 2020, and applied to the clubs nominated by their member association to qualify for the 2021 OFC Champions League.[153] However, on 31 December 2021, Auckland City withdrew from the competition due to delayed reopening of the borders in New Zealand related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reintroduction of the mandatory managed isolation and quarantine system upon returning to the country. As a result, Tahitian
AS Pirae were nominated as the OFC's representative in their place.[154]
On 17 March 2020, the
CAF announced that the
2020 African Nations Championship had been postponed to a later date due to the pandemic.[157] On 30 June CAF announced that the tournament would be held in January 2021.
Concerns were raised regarding
UEFA Euro 2020, being held in twelve host cities across Europe, and the potential impact of the coronavirus on players, staff and tournament visitors.[159] UEFA president
Aleksander Čeferin said the organisation was confident that the situation could be dealt with, while general secretary
Theodore Theodoridis stated that UEFA was maintaining contact with the
World Health Organization and national governments regarding the coronavirus.[160] UEFA announced that a
videoconference would be held on 17 March with representatives of its 55 member associations, along with a
FIFPro representative and the boards of the
European Club Association and
European Leagues, to discuss the response to the outbreak for domestic and European competitions, including Euro 2020.[161] The tournament was moved by 12 months.[162] On 23 April 2021, UEFA announced that
Seville (
La Cartuja) would replace Bilbao as tournament host, while the matches of Dublin (
Aviva Stadium) would be reallocated to
Saint Petersburg for the group stage and
London for the round of 16.[163]
The
2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup was marred with COVID-19 cases among many of its participating teams. Most affected were host
India who were forced to withdraw from the tournament due to too many players rendered unavailable either due to COVID-19 or injuries.[169]
This article incorporates
text by Leonardo José Mataruna-Dos-Santos, Pedro da Gama Roberto de Albuquerque, Gabriel de Almeida Vasconcellos, Rodrigo Mendonça do Nascimento, Nadine Tonelli Cavalari, Daniel Range, Andressa Fontes Guimarães-Mataruna, and Bianca Ortiz-Silva available under the
CC BY 4.0 license.
^"中国足协关于2020赛季国内足球赛事延期开始的公告". Chinese Football Association (in Chinese). 30 January 2020.
Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
^Mataruna-Dos-Santos LJ, Albuquerque PdGRd, Vasconcellos GdA, Nascimento RMd, Cavalari NT, Range D, Guimarães-Mataruna AF, Ortiz-Silva B. An Analysis Safe Protocols Employed in Professional Male Soccer and the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the 2020 Brazilian Championship. Sustainability. 2021; 13(24):13585.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413585