London (AFP)

The UEFA ultimatum threatening to exclude from the European Cups championships tempted, like Belgium, to end their season prematurely due to the coronavirus, also disrupts the modest Scottish championship which saw it as a reasonable choice.

On Thursday, the board of directors of the Belgian Pro League had "unanimously decided that it was not desirable, whatever the scenario envisaged, to continue the competition after June 30" and recommended "not resume competitions in the 2019-2020 season ".

This opinion must be ratified by the General Assembly of the body on April 15.

Scottish clubs were to emulate them on Friday via videoconference, but it was postponed until next week, despite the great difficulties of certain teams whose survival is clearly at stake in the months to come after the sudden stop competitions.

In the Netherlands too, the idea was gaining ground, in the wake of the great Ajax Amsterdam whose sports director, Marc Overmars, had not hesitated to accuse the national federation of "hiding behind UEFA" and of not not have the guts to say stop.

As of Thursday, UEFA had indeed sent a threatening letter to the federations, leagues and clubs of the continent to recall its mantra: it is necessary "to carry out the competitions to their end".

Behind this inflexible position, it is not only the concern for sports equity. UEFA wants the continental competitions to come to an end at all costs, if necessary this summer, otherwise it will also lose incredible C1 TV rights.

- Clubs taken by the throat financially -

Having no proper authority on this issue, UEFA has raised the only threat at its disposal, "to assess the legitimacy (of clubs that the leagues would like to register under the 2019/2020 classification terminated prematurely) to participate in competitions of UEFA in 2020-2021 ".

In less diplomatic terms: exclude rebels.

The threat is great for Bruges, promised to the Champions League with its 15 points lead at the head of the regular season. It is even more so for Scottish clubs.

With ridiculously low television rights - £ 21 million a year (EUR 24m) currently, compared to more than GBP 3bn (EUR 3.5bn) for the wealthy English neighbor -, Scotland has fallen considerably in the European hierarchy .

However, it cannot easily do without the solidarity payments provided for by UEFA.

Ending the current season quickly, by crowning Celtic, would have made it possible to unlock the bonuses and pay them quickly to clubs taken by the throat financially.

In order not to hurt anyone, the two clubs in position to rise in the elite would have been promoted and nobody would have been demoted, thanks to an enlargement of the Scottish Premier League to 14 teams.

- An "increasingly unrealistic" recovery -

With an average of 43% of their income made at the ticket offices of their stadiums, Scottish clubs are by far the most dependent on ticketing among the 20 main European championships.

After the suspension of the championship, many clubs did not procrastinate and took drastic measures like the Heart of Midlothian which asked its players to give up 50% of their salary, while for the Hibernians it is a postponement of half of the remuneration which has been suggested.

Even the Celtics, who nevertheless had a positive cash flow of 33 million pounds (37.5 M EUR) in their last annual balance sheet, in February, are planning cuts, said coach Neil Lennon.

Drawing a line under 2019/2020 would also ensure that 2020/2021 starts as planned, with the entry into force of a new, much more favorable broadcasting agreement, at 32 M GBP (36.3 M EUR) per year.

"Given the deadlines that this implies, I think that with each passing day (a resumption of the championship) becomes more and more unrealistic", wanted to believe a week ago the president of Motherwell, Alan Burrows on the BBC. It remains to convince UEFA.

© 2020 AFP