Coronavirus: Over 100 football clubs at verge of closing down

By Florence Kalu

Closed to 100 or 200 football clubs in Europe stand the chance of going into extinction between September and October for failure to meet up with their financial obligation occasioned by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

According to Dennis Gudasic, Lokomotiva Zagreb director, sited concerns over the slowdown in the multi-billion-dollar transfer market, and possible defaults on payments from player deals made before the coronavirus  shutdown .

Dennis Gudasic

At an online debate hosted by the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland on Wednesday, Gudasic expressed concern that the biggest threat to club football in the coming six months is going to be the survival of smaller clubs.

He stated that there is a lot of uncertainty Now, as many clubs are looking for richer leagues to complete their seasons so that money paid by broadcasters for fulfilling contracts can revive the transfer market.

Some clubs in Croatia in terms of budgeting according to Gudasic, became addicted to transfer revenue from their former players.

Gudasic further said that although English clubs face hardship if broadcast deals are not paid in full, the huge wealth gap in Europe was highlighted.

He stated that every English Premier League club will still be paid tens of millions of dollars this season, while Croatian clubs get 150,000 euros ($162,000) annually from domestic TV revenue.

In the words of the Juventus president, the coronavirus outbreak is the biggest challenge football game and industry has ever faced in the recent time

It was also in March this year that  Andrea Agnelli, leader of European Club Association (ECA) predicted that clubs faced “an existential threat”.

The world governing football body, Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), has accepted to be flexible with the typical July-August trading period in Europe as there is no clarity when the current season will end and when the 2020-21 campaign will commence.

Piotr Sadowski, FIFA international scout said, this would be a good idea to make like a six months transfer window from summer to winter 2021, as it would give all those clubs a chance to better plan transfers and their budgets.