Keir RADNEDGE

Virus sends international calendar into meltdown

One effect of the coronavirus crisis has been to throw into stark relief the scheduling crisis affecting football at international and domestic level.

Swiss Football Association president Dominique Blanc has warned, after a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people in the country, that medium-sized and small FAs might soon be seeking financial support from both the world and European federations.

Meanwhile, ties in the east zone of the AFC Champions League have been postponed, as have regional qualifiers in Asia for the 2022 World Cup. And in Europe questions are being asked about the prospects for this summer’s Euro 2020.

Wholesale postponements in Italy, along with and government isolation orders, not only threw the concluding months of