Navigating Covid-19: A Sporting Chance

Since it took hold in the early months of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has spread to more than 200 countries and plunged the world into the worst global economic depression for almost a century. Economists are predicting that the effects of the virus could cut global economic growth by 3-6% in 2020. With hopes of a partial recovery in 2021 relying on the optimistic assumption that there will not be a resurgence of rising infections, there is a risk that the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis could lead to a global collapse with levels of unemployment not experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In addition to the increase in poverty and unemployment, the cost of lives upended, careers derailed, and increased social unrest, the human cost in terms of lives lost to the virus will permanently affect worldwide economic growth. It’s estimated that global trade could fall by as much as 30%.

Baby Steps

Four months after the pandemic began rapidly spreading across the planet and shutting down economic activity as we have come to know it, businesses and economies around the world have slowly, but not so surely, begun to take baby steps along a path they hope will take them back to some semblance of normality.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given its global popularity and its ability to deliver a potent mix of passion, community cohesion and money, football is at the forefront of the attempts to re-emerge from the global pandemic. The game’s major European leagues - Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s LaLiga, the English Premier League (EPL) and Italy’s Serie A – have worked hard to find ingenious ways to comply with social distancing and other public health measures and re-open, well before many other sports and other sectors of the economy.

LaLiga, the top division in Spanish football, is represented in Hong Kong by Eduard Castell, one of the 46 delegates the league has deployed in an operation which covers 86 markets worldwide. One of the world’s most popular professional sports leagues, with an average attendance of nearly 27,000 for matches in the 2018–19 season, LaLiga also has 11 offices established across the globe – including two in China (one in Beijing and its Asian headquarters in Shanghai).

Strict Protocol

Castell believes that the sterling preparatory work carried out by LaLiga – which began as soon as the pandemic forced football to stop in Spain in March – is what it allowed it to restart quicker than all its rivals other than the Bundesliga.

Highlighting the speed with which action was taken by the league’s authorities, Castell said: “Of course, no one has a perfect answer to the problems we find ourselves with, this is an unprecedented situation for everyone. But I believe that LaLiga has been one of the leaders in coming up with a protocol which allowed for the return of football on 11 June 2020 after a 93-day shutdown. Our work to come up with a protocol which would allow us to realistically and safely get back to playing, even if it was going to be behind closed doors with no fans in the stadium, began as soon as the shutdown was imposed.”

This protocol included a strict regime of Covid-19 testing for players and staff alike, and the enforcement of new rules – such as players coming to training sessions and games in their own cars, and taking home and cleaning their individual outfits and kits – designed to reduce any chance of spreading the virus. It also included provisions which would see fan-free LaLiga stadiums divided up into three strictly segregated sectors for players, club staff and the media, in order to ensure maximum social distancing. This last measure was also adopted by the EPL when it restarted a week after LaLiga.

‘Invincible’ Athletes

Castell admits that it hasn’t been an easy process to ensure that LaLiga’s players – some of the best, and highest paid, in the world - were happy to comply with the restrictions being forced upon them. Noting that the players have been itching to get back onto the pitch and do what they do best, Castell said: “Players are young and like young people in any situation they sometimes feel invincible, especially as they are very fit athletes. We had to make sure the protocol was spelled out clearly to them. It worked, and we have shared this experience and protocol not only with other football leagues around Europe and elsewhere, but also with other sports.”

The league’s Covid-19 protocol not only applies to actual, fully-fledged league games, but also to the way that individual players conduct themselves on the way to and from the training ground and in training sessions themselves. Castell was keen to point out that everything is being carried out in close conjunction with the Spanish sports and health authorities and government, saying: “The Spanish sports authorities, in consultation with health authorities, have to make the final decisions regarding the resumption of matches and the re-opening of stadiums.”​​​​​​​