Arsenal usually spend pre-season jetting off to Asia before moving onto America to cash-in on their international fame, but may now have to settle for staying in the United Kingdom.
It remains to be seen whether the Premier League campaign will even be finished, despite the FA insisting that the division has simply been ‘suspended indefinitely’, and lengthy delays to the continuation have led to certain calls to be made.
The recently acclaimed International Champions Cup, in which the biggest sides in Europe compete against each other in neutral grounds across the globe, has just announced that the 2020 edition will not be going ahead.
This of course makes complete sense, with no calendar able to be planned amidst the growing uncertainty in a number of nations as to the Coronavirus.
The current pandemic looks more than likely to see some countries opt to play out the remaining of the campaign behind closed doors, and may also force UEFA to cancel their current European competitions.
Arsenal usually pick up some decent revenues for their part in selling out large stadiums around the world, which comes as another blow with the Premier League TV income also up in the air at present.
Clubs may now have to consider playing their entire pre-season in the United Kingdom and behind closed doors, and I could see an increase in teams trying to lobby their own friendly matches to television companies in a bid to retrieve some of that deficit.
Does it look more likely that the new campaign could start almost immediately after this season ends? Will clubs have to consider little-to-no pre-season at all?
Patrick
