The rest of the English Premier League matches are now on hold for at least three weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. With this comes the talk of whether Liverpool should just already get the title even before the matches finish.
The Reds are now on the top spot with a 25-point lead over Manchester City, which is in the second place. It’s surely a far lead and it’s understandable why there are suggestions that they should be crowned as the champions already.
However, the UEFA doesn’t seem to agree with this. Doing this may just jeopardize the league further when it comes to the European qualification and relegation. UEFA President Alexander Ceferin has already dismissed this idea.
Ceferin said in a statement, “I’ve seen and heard some again fake news that UEFA will advise leagues to finish the championships now and decide that the winners are the ones who are number one now. I can say that it is not true. Our goal is to finish the leagues.”
This is also despite the uncertainty of whether the matches will still push through in the next few weeks. However, the UEFA is still hoping that the season will be carried out by the end of June. Of course, this will still be largely dependent on how things will go in terms of the virus situation.
Europe is now called as the center of the epidemic by the World Health Organization. It’s mainly Italy that’s already greatly affected by this pandemic with over 35,000 cases and almost 3,000 deaths. Italy is already in lockdown as of the moment.
The remaining EPL matches are not scheduled to take place in Italy but the rest of Europe is also dealing with this pandemic. It’s a precautionary measure to cancel sports events and the EPL is not exempted. Many other sports and leagues worldwide have already canceled its matches and some are even for an indefinite period.
The sports betting industry is greatly affected by this as there seem to be not enough fixtures that are available out there anymore. European bookies are struggling in terms of revenue and it’s the bookies in Switzerland that are not greatly affected as they don’t heavily rely on sports betting.
For now, punters would flock online casinos to get the thrill that they seek in terms of gambling. A great site to check is https://www.casinoguide.co.uk when it comes to the best online casino sites out there. Some punters would also just place bets on matches that are still scheduled to push through.
Most of these matches are happening in Turkey, South America, and Russia. There are also bookies that are exploring different events to wager on to cope with the lack of sports events in the next few weeks or even months. Interestingly, punters can now wager on the weather and even on the presidential elections.
Going back to the issue regarding the possible crowning of Liverpool for this season of the EPL, it’s still appearing unlikely. The fans and the people in the industry itself will still have to wait for the season to finish.
Ceferin is clear about claiming that the news about Liverpool getting crowned without finishing the season is fake news. The UEFA is eager to finish all matches and announcing that a team is already the champions without finishing the leagues is something that they will not recommend and have not recommended to any association or league.
Liverpool is just really two wins away from winning this season and it’s not unlikely that they themselves will push for getting crowned without finishing the season yet. This is definitely an exciting event for the team as it has been 30 years since the team was known as the champions.
Football star Alan Shearer also shared his thoughts about this. He said, “If you cannot complete the fixtures, then you cannot go handing out titles or consider relegating anybody. For Liverpool, it would be incredibly harsh, but I cannot see how it would be fair to hand them the title.”
He explained, “I cannot see how it would be fair to hand Liverpool the title, despite the fact it is obvious nobody is going to catch them. They only need six points to wrap it up, but they have not got them yet, so for that reason, it has to be declared null and void. It would be very different if the season was suspended after they had got the points to win it. But they haven’t, and, however, horrible a scenario it would be, it’s the only option.”
