London (AFP)
While several European championships are sharpening their plans for recovery, the chairman of the FIFA medical committee, Michel d'Hooghe, was "very skeptical" Tuesday on a return to competition, in an interview with the BBC.
"The situation is different country by country, the peak is not reached everywhere at the same time, but today, April 28, we are not ready for a resumption of football competitions," said the doctor.
He said that this would probably still be the case "in the coming weeks" and that the national football authorities should rather "try to prepare for a good start for next season".
"There is a risk and this risk has no small consequences. It is a matter of life and death (...) As a doctor, I don't have to speak for the match organizers , but for the moment, from a medical point of view, I am very skeptical, "continued the Belgian.
For the moment, among the five major European championships, only France has decided, by government decision, to stop the 2019-20 season and not resume competition until September.
Other more modest championships, such as Scotland, the Netherlands or Belgium have or will probably also end the current exercise.
But the Bundesliga could resume mid-May or late May, the Premier League is working on an unofficial plan that would see a return to competition on June 8 and Italy or Spain also hope to go all the way of the current season.
"I am afraid that, to have a complete solution, we would have to wait until we have a vaccination program," predicted Mr. D'Hooghe, who also pleads for strict hygiene rules to be imposed.
"For example to avoid spitting. Why should we see this in football and not in other sports? This is one of the things that we will have to think about because it will be a real danger in the future", he argued.
© 2020 AFP