Coronavirus and English football

As of this writing, there are no plans to postpone any of this weekend’s Premier League games. However, the league is closely monitoring the worldwide concern for the virus. To date, there have been more than 90,000 cases of the virus reported wordwide.

The Premiere League has recently issued guidelines to its 20 clubs, and is following the National Health Service guidelines used by all English venues that hold a large number of people.

Clubs are asking all staffs, coaches and players to regularly wash their hands and to place themselves in isolation if they experience any of the virus’s symptoms. At this time, the league has not put a hold on pregame handshakes among the players.

Already, several matches in Italy’s Serie A have been either postponed or have been played to empty stadiums. A delay for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics has also been discussed due to the coronavirus outbreak in Asia.

Also, it appears any chance Arsenal had to travel to Asia this summer for preseason competition in the International Champions Cup has been cancelled. The organizing body for this competition has removed all Asian-based games from this summer’s schedule due to the virus.

This global issue obviously transcends sports, and is something we should all pay close attention to over the days ahead.

Gunner1953