How COVID-19 affected the football world

With Euro 2020 postponed until next year and the 2020/21 season now starting in September, it’s no doubt that COVID-19 has dramatically, if temporarily, changed the normal schedule of the beautiful game. The 2019/20 season was postponed in England on the 19th of March until the end of April at the earliest, but the next few weeks would prove to be potentially fatal for the recovery of the season.

After many players and staff from various clubs at all levels tested positive for the virus, the non-league divisions below the national league were ended, with League 1 and 2 doing the same, but promoting and relegating teams instead of expunging results. 

But it wasn’t just league football that was affected, with UEFA suspending Champions and Europa League games until further notice in April, and postponing the European Championships until 2021. 

March and April were very confusing and worrying months for the football world, but on the 7th May, the Bundesliga was the first league in Europe to announce it’s resume. This was followed by the return of the K League a day later, as many countries enforced strict lockdown rules and managed to quickly reduce the spread of the virus. It wasn't until the 5th June that the Premier League announced its restart, with the first match being on the 17th. 

But the pandemic didn't just affect the world off the pitch, with the Bundesliga being a guinea pig to determine how the return to regular football without fans influenced the overall tempo, whether more or less goals were scored, and whether we could kiss goodbye to home advantage. 

Home atmosphere is a fairly important, but still slightly anecdotal factor for the majority of German football, but with examples like the Yellow Wall in Dortmund, or the 75,000 capacity Allianz Arena in Munich, it’s clear to see how it can have an impact on the travelling teams every weekend, and the data from six weeks after the return of the campaign definitely supports the idea of an advantage, and how it has definitely been tampered with for many clubs. The data shows that home wins became less likely, going from 43% to 33% for May and June, and fewer goals were scored per game, an average of 1.74 down to 1.43, with overall attempts reducing by 10% and less being on target than before. Many people thought that these changes were due to the players having a 2 month break and therefore not playing and training as intensively, but this is not the case, as match intensity has unusually increased in some areas, with an increase in sprints and high-intensity runs.

So as a whole, a lot of the data shows that home advantage has not been anywhere near as prominent in the Bundesliga with empty stadiums, and with the 20-21 season most likely having crowdless stadiums for a large amount of the season, we could see a good number of underdog stories coming to light.