Belgian league set to be cancelled: could Portuguese football follow suit?
With every passing day, the chances of the current season reaching a natural conclusion diminishes, and the Portuguese Football Federation have now set out the calendar they are aiming for.
With news that the Belgian First Division is set to be cancelled and Club Brugge, who led at the top of the league by 15 points, declared champions, there is a growing feeling that other leagues across the continent, and indeed world, may soon follow suit in declaring an unprecedented premature end to the current campaign.
The difference between the Belgian and Portuguese league cannot be overlooked though, with just a single match remaining in the regular season of the Belgian top flight, whilst the Portuguese Primeira Liga still has 10 matches remaining.
Additionally, while declaring Club Brugge champions was an easy decision to take due to the sheer gulf between them and 2nd place Gent, the gap between league leaders Porto and 2nd place Benfica is just 1 point, and therefore opting to decide that the current standings are final would be far more controversial.
Nevertheless, there remains a real possibility that no football will be played for at least a couple of months still, meaning that the current season could run into the scheduled start of the next, particularly if a short pre-season is required before the current campaign can resume.
The Portuguese Football Federation are therefore aiming to have the 2019-20 season finished by the end of July, or by the first few days of August, with UEFA revising their previous deadline and looking to wrap up all this season’s football by August 3rd.
It also means that this is the date by which UEFA must have the official list of which sides from each country have been allocated each Champions League and Europa League berth, which is another problem facing Portuguese football if the season is not completed.
Right now, the hope remains that the season will be finished, but if competitive football only resumes in mid-June, squeezing in 10 fixtures for each side in a 6-week window is a tall order.
There is also the issue of contracts, with loan deals and player contracts set to expire on and around the 30th June; should the season proceed beyond that date, several clubs, particularly Famalicao, could face a significant problem to finish the season should players leave upon the expiry of their existing terms.
