Whilst at first you may think that this opinion and headline is absurd, and well for the most part I would agree with you. However I think that the certain actions that have arisen from this pandemic are undeniably steps in a more positive direction.
Ever since the turn of the 21st century one may argue that football is more business and money driven, well that would be correct as clubs in the Premier League alone earn sums close to 1 billion pounds just for TV licensing rights. Although this remained consistent during lockdown, clubs globally lost revenue that equates to roughly 40% of their income. This would be ticketing and matchday sales. This loss in revenue would be solely down to the fact that fans are not able to attend games. This 40% figure that I have been just throwing around would only really apply to the big clubs in the top leagues across europe. For lower league teams this figure would be closer to 90%. This is where you can see the disparity that has grown and grown right in front of us without us even knowing. However COVID-19 has given more and more people the time to realise this and take action. In current day more and more people are boycotting bigger clubs in favor of their smaller and more local teams. Giving a greater appreciation of how important fans are in the “Beautiful game”. This is only one positive, you don’t have to look much further to see Marcus Rashford M.B.E and the incredible things that he has managed to do during lockdown. As a 23 year old he has managed to give millions of school meals to the less fortunate kids in our country. Not only that he is also leading the charge against racism in football, showing kids not only in the UK but globally what a true leader and role model looks like.
I am well aware that COVID-19 is the most catastrophic thing to happen in a long time and am not saying that it was a good thing. However I did just want to point out that there were some positives to take out from this experience which has now affected us all.
