The future of all European football continues to be uncertain due to the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all the championships and European cups, including the strongest, took a break, the end of which is not yet visible. None of the leading leagues seriously stutter about the resumption of the season, which cannot be postponed indefinitely - even if the distribution of COVID-19 stops abruptly, it is time to write a new chapter in football in the fall.
Some competitions have already been ruined. Many European hockey championships immediately announced that they would not resume and will be canceled permanently. Some leagues, which were supposed to end in the spring, still resisted, but they also surrendered - the seasons in the KHL and VTB United League are officially over without a possible continuation. The turn came to football. For example, in England they are not going to resume draws of lower unprofessional leagues up to the third strongest division. Fans can easily guess what could happen next with their favorite competitions.
But paused championships and European cups still have a chance to be played out. An interesting idea was put forward by the president of Nice, Jean-Pierre River. In an interview with Nice-Matin, he proposed redoing the football calendar in Europe for the next three years, in order not only to buy time for playing out this season, but also to schedule the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In fact, the River offers to do something that many Russian fans are still nostalgic for - to switch to the “spring-autumn” system instead of the “autumn-spring” system, which has been established in Europe since the birth of football. In normal times, no one would have thought of breaking an established system, but current circumstances are pushing for such desperate steps. And not only a manager, but also specialists. The idea of Jean-Pierre in absentia was supported by the mentors of “Nantes” and “Marcel” Christian Gourcuff and Andre Villas-Boas.
If the coronavirus pandemic nevertheless declines and a favorable environment develops in order for football to revive in Europe, then the new season will not start at all, having forgotten about the old. In most leagues, you need to play about one third of the planned tours, and all the autumn months will be more than enough. Enough time to complete the European Cups, and for the matches of the League of Nations. By November-December, all tournaments that were supposed to end in May will be able to end safely.
And further such a schedule with the beginning of the season in January-February and the end in November-December can be maintained up to the mundial, which will just have to go in the winter at the end of 2022 instead of the usual summer. It will be much more convenient for the leading players in the world to fly to Qatar after the national titles are played and the winners of the European competitions are determined, and not during an unprecedented pause that caused criticism from the clubs.
The advantage of a massive transition to the spring-autumn system will be the fact that it will be possible to use the most convenient summer months for football. This is true for countries with a harsh winter climate and especially for Russia - the need to hold matches in the early spring and in the December cold immediately disappears if there is the possibility of at least a few tours to spend in the summer.
True, club football can exist in the summer, in fact, only in 2022. After all, in 2020, Euro 2020 is due to take place, and the leagues, along with the European competitions, will still have to pause. But even one year of non-stop football, after which the national teams will have a lot of time to prepare for the World Cup, can be a beautiful reckoning for the current forced pause.
The transition to the spring-autumn system may still require some modifications. For example, the dates of the final of the League of Nations, whose place was forced to take Euro 2020, are still unknown. The transfer of this tournament, in turn, breaks the selection process for the mundial, which was originally planned to be completed by March 2022. Breaks for matches of national teams will be required very often, and this will create certain inconvenience to clubs, unless qualifications can be completed in a short time.
The transition to "spring-autumn" does not take into account the interests of countries that already live on such a calendar. If for most European championships this is an opportunity to save the current season, then the rest will not get any benefit from this kind of synchronization. Because of the coronavirus, they lose time, which cannot be compensated until the end of 2020, except by shortening the calendar or a hypothetical transition to the autumn-spring system.
Finally, the system of transfer windows will be changed for some time, and the last day of the contract will have to be done on December 31 instead of June 30. By the way, FIFA is already trying to make life easier for clubs by delaying the summer transfer window, and this could be one of the first steps on the way to the spring-autumn system.
The main problem of the restructuring of the entire European football calendar is how to return to the previous system. In this case, you can use the Russian experience, when in the season 2011/12, after the usual two laps, the teams were divided into two eights and spent six months playing matches with each other.
However, it is quite difficult to apply this method in those countries where 20 teams play in the top division at once - according to this scheme, at least 56 rounds will have to be played without possible play-off matches and transitional games. In addition, it is not clear how to increase the European Cups - they will need some new format for the draw to take place a year and a half, or there will be no international club matches in the first half of 2023.
With all the possible advantages, the idea of a European transition to the “spring-autumn” system so far remains only an idea about which UEFA and FIFA will not speak out loud for a long time. If football officials are still interested in formatting the calendar, then they will have to clarify many points that so far raise questions. But it is obvious that the fans will be very sorry if the 2019/20 season has to be canceled and just forgotten, and it will only be possible to save it by decisive measures.