Champions League and Euro 2020 in Jeopardy as Real Madrid joined Juventus in isolation

Real madrid champions league line up

Real Madrid after coming in contact with an athlete who tested positive for the coronavirus,  joined Juventus in isolation. UEFA said it would meet to discuss the effects on its competitions.

Champions League and other top competitions to face an uncertain future as positive test results and growing suspicion about exposure to the novel coronavirus continued to cause chaos on the worldwide sports calendar. European soccer ruling body explained that it would meet up next week to decide the fate of this summer’s European championship. The Champions League faced the prospect of being suspended after Real Madrid became the latest of Europe best teams to go into quarantine. More than a dozen competitions in Europe and the Americas have mentioned that they will temporarily suspend play.

 Real Madrid confirmed in a statement on Thursday morning that one of its basketball players had tested positive for the coronavirus, and that as a result all of the club’s sporting activities were being suspended. The basketball team shares a training facility with its soccer team; therefore the restrictions were also applied to both teams.

Juventus team 

On Wednesday, another Champions League challenger, the Italian champions Juventus, confirmed that its players were going into isolation after one member of the team, defender Daniele Rugani, had tested positive for the virus. Inter Milan, which lost to Juventus in a game held behind closed doors on Sunday, announced a few minutes later that it, too, was suspending all sporting activity. Soon after Real Madrid announced it was entering quarantine, Spain’s top soccer league announced that it was postponing the next two match days.

On Thursday, the top American league, Major League Soccer, announced it was suspending play for 30 days, effective immediately, and leagues in Portugal, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland and the Netherlands did the same. In Europe, the Champions League, which annually features top teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris St. Germain, is in the middle of its round of 16.

UEFA, the European governing body for soccer, does not expect Real Madrid and Juventus to fulfill their Champions League fixtures next week. Though it was reported in Spain on Thursday morning that UEFA was set to announce an imminent suspension of the Champions League and its second-tier Europa League competition, no official announcement was made. Instead, UEFA announced that it would hold a teleconference with legislative body of its 55 members associations on Tuesday, as well as representatives of an association representing the continent’s top clubs and its largest players’ union, to “discuss European football’s response to the outbreak.”

“Discussions will include all domestic and European competitions, including UEFA Euro 2020,” UEFA said, a reference to the quadrennial championship set for this summer that is also under threat from the continuing uncertainty.

The call was delayed until Tuesday because of the immense complexity in coming up with solutions while honouring the existing contracts with various groups, including broadcasters and sponsors. Organizers of the Europa would also be required to lengthen contracts for 400 workers for another year and to redraw staging contracts with host cities and venues, and come to new agreements with broadcasters.

But they are also facing a time crunch to play all of their postponed matches, crown champions, and determine which clubs will be promoted or relegated to new divisions for next season. It is expected that every stakeholder will have to give up something to get the games played, meaning European competitions could be cut to single-leg fixtures and some matches could be played on the weekends, a window long reserved for domestic play.

For now, UEFA is consulting with Europe’s national leagues to try to construct a cogent plan to deal with the effects of the virus, rather than the piecemeal approach being taken to date, in order to get the club season finished.