The deprivation of a seemingly impending first league title in 30 years is not the only setback Liverpool would endure if the current Premier League season is declared null and void.
According to a report from Football Insider, the Reds could lose up to £100m if the 2019/20 season is scratched from the record rather than played out to its conclusion once the threat of coronavirus subsides to a safe enough degree to resume playing football.
Football Insider noted that Premier League clubs receive £1.25m in facility fees every time that one of their matches is televised, with the Reds due to have six matches televised across March and April which haven’t been or won’t be played on their original dates due to the league’s temporary cessation. The club would also miss out on millions of pounds from matchday revenue as well as merchandising and commercial losses, with Anfield due to host a further four league games in 2019/20.
The fate of the current Premier League season remains unclear, with The Independent‘s Miguel Delaney reporting on Sunday that the remaining 92 matches could be played in a geographically concentrated World Cup-style format in June and July. However, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin admitted to Italian newspaper La Repubblica (via Sky Sports) that the European season “would probably be lost” if leagues are unable to resume by the end of June.
The latter scenario would be incredibly galling from a Liverpool perspective, given that the Reds are 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League and need only six more from nine games to ensure a first league title since 1990, having won 27 of their 29 league matches so far this term. The heartbreak would be compounded by the agony of the near-misses that the club have endured in previous seasons, such as the fateful results against Chelsea and Crystal Palace in 2014 and the narrow loss to Manchester City last season, Liverpool’s only league defeat in the entire campaign as their 97-point haul was still insufficient to dethrone Pep Guardiola’s side (as per TransferMarkt).
The potential loss of up to £100m if the current season is voided would also be a severe blow to Liverpool’s reported transfer ambitions. The Reds have been linked with some big-money moves in recent weeks, including a potential £120m swoop for Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho (Daily Express), a possible £50m move for RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner (Daily Express) and a reported interest in £73m-rated Bayer Leverkusen playmaker Kai Havertz (Daily Express).
After minimal transfer spending over the last 12 months, this had been possibly shaping up to be the summer in which Liverpool went large to try and maintain their place at the top of the English football tree. However, if the season is voided and the club misses out on a possible £100m, their transfer ambitions would surely be dealt a mortal blow, thus compounding the psychological horror of being so cruelly deprived what had looked like a nailed-on Premier League title.
Liverpool fans, how damaging would the loss of £100m from the potential voiding of the 2019/20 season prove to be for the club? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
