How the coronavirus could affect Liverpool's Premier League title bid | OneFootball

How the coronavirus could affect Liverpool's Premier League title bid | OneFootball

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OneFootball

Dan Burke·28 February 2020

How the coronavirus could affect Liverpool's Premier League title bid

Article image:How the coronavirus could affect Liverpool's Premier League title bid

Liverpool could be about to have the Premier League title snatched away from them by the coronavirus.

The rapid spread of the potentially deadly virus has lead to speculation that the British government could order all UK sporting events to be cancelled for more than two months, which would potentially mean the remaining fixtures of the Premier League season would never be played.


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If that did happen, the Premier League’s head honchos would be forced to decide whether previous results would be allowed to stand, or whether the entire season would be rendered null and void.

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And if that were to happen, the Telegraph report on Friday that there is no guarantee Liverpool would be crowned champions.

Equally, there is no guarantee the current bottom three clubs in the league wouldn’t be relegated as there are no specific rules in place to determine what would happen if the season had to be abandoned early.

Liverpool are currently 22 points clear at the top of the table and just four victories away from clinching their first ever Premier League title.

Although it seems highly unlikely, some Reds fans will no doubt be worrying it would be just their luck if the outbreak of the coronavirus spoiled their title party.

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In the meantime, clubs throughout England and Europe are doing their best to prevent the spread of the virus.

Newcastle boss Steve Bruce and West Ham boss David Moyes both confirmed in their press conferences on Friday that handshakes have been banned from their respective training grounds.

Arsenal and Tottenham are two of a number of clubs who are asking visitors to their training grounds to fill out health forms, while Spurs forward Son Heung-min will have to go through safety protocols when he returns from having an arm operation in Seoul, South Korea – one of the regions worst affected by the coronavirus.

A number of matches in Italy (including Juventus v Inter Milan on Sunday) will be played behind closed doors while in Switzerland, all public events exceeding 1000 people have been cancelled until 15 March, meaning all Swiss Super League fixtures will not go ahead until further notice.

But one man who doesn’t seem to be too worried about the virus is Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola …

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The coronavirus (AKA COVID-19) has at the time of writing killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 83,000 worldwide.