England Premier Soccer League
The league held an emergency Monday crisis meeting and decided decisively not to postpone the league due to the issue of broadcasting fees and match day revenue. However, the ravaging Omicron mutant virus has not only infested the
England Premier Soccer League
, the entire continent of Europe was not spared.
bear the brunt of
La Liga
, 31 new players tested positive for nucleic acid on Monday, involving six teams - Real Madrid (10), Betis (6), Cadiz (5), Celta, Elche (4) and Barcelona (2). Previously, Athletic Bilbao had four, Celta five, Betis and Osasuna two and Levante and Valencia one each. Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad also had large aggregations of infections, 12 in the former and 10 in the latter.
As we move into December, especially around the year-end holidays, the
La Liga
The professional leagues were deeply concerned about the seriousness of the situation as the number of players infected skyrocketed. In response, the leagues have revised their immunization protocols.
La Liga
and the daily nucleic acid testing for the 42 teams in WB will increase to 60. Nucleic acid testing will be mandatory for all clubs on entry to the training base (including training, training check-in, treatment, etc.) and must be completed each morning before training. Away teams will also be required to have a nucleic acid test prior to departure. Players returning from vacation, returning from an international match day, joining a new team, or even after more than 3 consecutive days of vacation or rehabilitation, must undergo a nucleic acid test before returning to the team.
For the first 15 days of January 2022, professional leagues will also conduct weekly serum antibody testing to prevent possible infections. In the meantime, it is recommended that enclosed spaces such as locker rooms be avoided, and players will change clothes outside the locker room for practices. Last year, Liga B team Fuenlabrada had more than 40 total infections due to locker room group infections.
Last week, Lugo in the WHL also had an outbreak of team infections in excess of 20 people, which forced the postponement of the game. The professional league requires a maximum of seven people in the locker room at any one time, and FFP2 masks and ventilation must be worn. Players are advised to shower in hotels or at home, and for centralized meals after training, it is recommended that up to four people share a table and that those sharing a meal be fixed in order to identify close contacts.
La Liga
It is hoped that only one game per team will be postponed in a season for the reason of an epidemic infection within the team; in WB it is 2 games and cannot be postponed during the last 8 rounds of the season. Obviously, in terms of the strictness of the anti-epidemic measures, the
La Liga
比
England Premier Soccer League
The response is faster and more stringent. Because.
La Liga
It can no longer afford another massive postponement. Moreover, not only England and Spain, but also Germany, France and the Netherlands have been hit to a similar extent, and the European soccer economy is once again facing the heavy blow of no matchday revenue after a year.
England Premier Soccer League
和
La Liga
Leagues try not to postpone matches whenever possible in order to avoid breaching broadcasting contracts, which can lead to deductions from broadcasters. However, with the Omicron variant virus sweeping across Europe, the biggest threat to the European soccer economy is not the postponement of matches, but rather the restriction of spectator attendance, or even empty stadiums, as countries tighten their anti-epidemic measures. This has meant a precipitous drop in matchday revenues for the
England Premier Soccer League
The big four leagues outside of that are particularly hard hit, not to mention the rest of Europe's top leagues and sub leagues that are even more reliant on match day revenue.
As early as mid-October, Latvia began to implement anti-epidemic measures close to the "closure of the country", prohibiting gatherings and the organization of cultural and sporting events. As early as November 12, the Netherlands resumed raising the threshold of epidemic prevention, and all soccer matches were left empty for at least three weeks. However, at least for the time being, stadiums in the Dutch league continue to be empty as the outbreak continues to worsen.
In early December, Germany also made the decision to limit spectator numbers due to the ferocious rebound of the epidemic. Outdoor stadium capacity was capped at 15,000 and indoor at 0.5 million, while admitted fans were required to wear masks and receive a full dose of vaccinations. Red Bull Leipzig, in the state of Saxony, where the outbreak is most severe, will have to play with an empty stadium.
Bayern
Fresh from celebrating a crowd of 75,000 at the Allianz Arena for the first time since the outbreak of the epidemic in October, the Bavarian state government decided to empty the stadium for Barcelona's matches in early December.
Bayern
Before the end of the year two
Bundesliga
The home field was also empty for the game.
On Monday night, the French government also announced that spectators at soccer matches in France will also be capped at only 5,000 people, who must also be full-dose vaccinated. This is because just last Saturday, France set another record with 104,600 new infections in a single day. France's stadium capacity limit ban is also for 3 weeks, but the media is generally more pessimistic, because there is a precedent in Germany, France will most likely continue to extend the restriction order, or even directly introduce an empty stadium ban.
The Omicron mutant virus has swept across Europe, and for clubs in the top five leagues, which have generally restored spectator attendance this season, the renewed restriction on spectator numbers is a major blow to the recovery of the soccer economy. After all, clubs have almost always taken out loans from the government or private equity to cover their financial shortfalls, counting on the restoration of matchday revenues to get the soccer economy back on track. However, if the epidemic continues to worsen, the lack of matchday revenues will lead to a vicious circle: sponsors and broadcasters will withhold their fees, and clubs will now be burdened with additional loans secured against matchday revenues.
Last season's empty games cost the whole of Europe billions of euros in losses, and now that the schedule is not even halfway through, and the situation of the epidemic in Europe has worsened to an unprecedented degree, the major leagues can finish the season successfully instead of being cut down to the waist, and the future will be the highest goal. As for the near future to restore match day revenue, in fact, has been an unrealistic fantasy.
