London (AFP)
British Football Federation president Greg Clarke does not believe that the English Championship, suspended since Friday and until April 3 due to the coronavirus epidemic, can come to an end, the British daily newspaper The Saturday reported Times.
According to The Times, the boss of English football expressed his skepticism at the emergency meeting after which the federation (FA) and the Premier League announced that the championship of the 1st division were suspended for three weeks .
In its press release, the FA nevertheless assured Friday that it was only a suspension and not a cancellation.
"All the parties concerned are engaged to try to complete the program of domestic competitions and are in contact to find the right solutions to this end," she explains.
But during this meeting, according to the Times, Greg Clarke estimated that the suspension would be longer and that the teams could not play all the matches on their program because of the expected increase in the number of cases of contamination by coronavirus.
For Liverpool, leading the championship with 22 points ahead 9 days from the end, this scenario would be a disaster, since the Reds are almost guaranteed to win the title of champion they have been waiting for 30 years.
According to the latest official report, 798 cases of Covid-19 disease linked to the new coronavirus have been identified in Great Britain, including 10 fatal. But a senior health official estimated that the number of people infected would actually be between 5,000 and 10,000.
The British government hopes to delay the peak of the epidemic in the summer to cushion the shock to health services.
© 2020 AFP