Catastrophic for football clubs if the season isn’t finished, proclaims Roberto Martinez
Belgium head coach and former Everton boss Roberto Martinez has confessed that it could be a ‘catastrophic situation’ for clubs if the 2019/20 season isn’t finished. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has caused the world to come to a standstill with football suspended and no restart in sight.
That has caused serious problems for clubs across football pyramids around the world with clubs in England suffering amongst the most. However, the financial impact of the coronavirus has affected not just the smaller sides but the bigger clubs as well with them struggling to survive without matchday and broadcasting income. It’s seen pay cuts and deferrals implemented with the Premier League slowly coming to terms with it as well.
But with the majority of European football suspended because of the coronavirus, things are slowly coming to an end with football associations looking at ending seasons. That includes the Dutch top tier with the KNVB looking to follow the Jupiler Pro League’s footsteps and end their season. But in an interview recently, Belgium manager Roberto Martinez admitted that it would be catastrophic for clubs if the season was ended.
"The decision was to finish the campaign was because everyone accepted that, after 29 games, if you are first you deserve to win and if you are bottom you deserve to be relegated. Other competitions, if they don't finish they will have to give the money back from TV rights and that would be catastrophic. I think the only solution is to finish the campaign," Martinez told BBC Sport.
“You need to make sure that everyone is aware there is a big risk of sending big institutions, institutions of football that have been alive for over 100 years, into a very difficult financial position. That's the reality. I think Uefa and Fifa have taken the right approach in prioritising domestic football.