Just like in the United States, countries around the world are suffering from the coronavirus. As we pass a total of 50 days without sports and land on day 51 today, many leagues around the world are talking about different ways to finish their season or start their season that was postponed.
However, in France they are done waiting and have decided to cancel the rest of the Ligue 1 2019-2020 season. Originally Ligue 1 had a plan to restart the league back up sometime in June, however a couple days ago French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe stated that it would be impossible to go through with that plan.
This comes as a shock to many as it seemed as many leagues around the world were looking at alternative options to finish out their seasons, for example the NBA is considering playing all of their games at Disney World, the MLB might adjust how divisions and leagues look for the season, and the Champions league might have to incorporate a playoff to decide who qualifies for the biggest competition in the world next year.
With Ligue 1 deciding to cancel the rest of the season it then begins to create a domino effect. With that PSG 12 points clear and with a game in hand on Marseille, they became the champions of Ligue 1 for the third time in a row and for their 9th total. Marseille and Rennes finished in second and third so they will qualify for the Champions league next year. Lille, Reims, and Nice finished consecutive 4th, 5th, and 6th and will all qualify for the Europa league next year.
The biggest shock coming out of the season ending early for Ligue 1 is that this will be the first time since 1997 that Lyon will not play in european competition next year. Finishing in 7th only 1 point behind Reims and Nice, they miss out of any time of qualification into european competition. The last game that Lyon played was against Lille where they had a brutal 1-0 defeat and if they had at least just drawn that game they would be sitting in 5th, and would have qualified for Europa league.
The question that is on everyone’s mind now is what will other leagues around Europe and the world start to do with finishing their respective seasons. A good sign for the Barclays Premier League is that Prime Minister Boris Johnson came out this week and believes that the UK is past the peak of the coronavirus. However, training facilities would have to be open for at least a month before clubs could start to play again, as the players would be too prone to injury if they rush it.
Another league that could have to do the same thing that Ligue 1 had to do is La Liga. Spain is second in the world for cases of the Coronavirus at this point and it could be a while to see Spain go back to normal and that would make it very difficult to finish out the 2019-2020 season.
