Coronavirus outbreak: Would Liverpool be denied the Premier League if title race is cancelled?

The effect of the deadly coronavirus has been devastating, with the global mortality rate reaching 3.4 per cent in early March.

It has already spread throughout China and into the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and parts of Europe.

With major sporting events and competitions already being cancelled and postponed in efforts to prevent further spread of the virus, questions have been raised about the possibility of the cancellation of this season’s Premier League and how it could potentially affect title hopefuls Liverpool.

Would Liverpool miss out on the Premier League if the coronavirus situation worsens?

Recent reports in the Telegraph have revealed that there would be “no guarantee” that Liverpool would be crowned Premier League champions if the current season was cut short due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic taking over the world.

It would be a disappointing blow for the Anfield side who are on course to lift their first ever Premiership trophy – and first league title on 30 years.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Premier League chiefs are set to hold discussions on what would be done if they were forced to end the season early.

The Premier League did announce that they would be suspending the pre-match handshake regime until further notice in order to combat further spread.

“For health reasons there will be no shaking of hands between players ahead of Premier League matches,” said the governing body.

The coronavirus situation has exacerbated spectacularly in the last few months after emerging out of a seafood market in Wuhan, China. The virus – which can be lethal – has already spread to the UK, with new cases of the virus in Scotland bringing the total number of positive tests to over 100.

The virus is transmitted through person-to-person transmission, with the advice that large crowds are urged to be avoided to avoid the further spread of the disease.

Of course, large sporting events are an obvious draw of large crowds, and there are increasing concerns that football in Europe will be suspended indefinitely in order to contain coronavirus.

Major sporting events around the world have already been cancelled due to the virus, with several Serie A matches being postponed and the 2020 Chinese Super League season being suspended indefinitely.

Will the remainder of the Premier League be cancelled?

There are no set regulations in the Premier League rule book of what would happen should the competition be cancelled early.

Of course, should the Premier League be cancelled, it would have a ripple effect across all of Europe. It is not now clear how relegation and promotion to and from the Premier League would work should the remainder of the season be suspended, and there are also issues raised about qualification for the Champions League, Europa League and other domestic and international competitions.

Any decision to end the season prematurely and not award any titles or promotion or relegation spots would be met with widespread controversy.

The Daily Mail states that “crisis talks” are to be held revolving the outcome of the season if the rest of the matches are to be cancelled.

Other tournaments, however, have faced early cancellation due to extraneous factors, such as the 2019 Rugby World Cup which was impacted by severe weather problems caused by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan.

Typhoon Hagibis caused New Zealand vs Italy and England vs France fixtures to be cancelled, with their results recorded as 0-0 draws according to tournament rules.

Teams whose matches were cancelled had their points shared, and no score registered.

There’s no guarantee that the FA could follow suit in awarding each team a point for cancelled fixtures, but it is another option.

How has Klopp responded?

The Liverpool boss has refused to be drawn into discourse about the consequences of the coronavirus threat, saying he does not know why his opinion on the situation is being sought – as he is no expert on the matter.

“Look, what I don’t like in life is that a very serious thing, a football manager’s opinion is important,” said Klopp following the FA Cup loss to Chelsea in March. “I don’t understand it. I really don’t understand it.

“It’s not important what famous people say. We have to speak about things in the right manner, not people with no knowledge like me, talking about something.

“People with knowledge will talk about it and should tell the people ‘do this, do that, do this,’ and everything will be fine, or not.

“Politics, coronavirus, why me? I wear a base(ball) cap and have a bad shave.”

Liverpool have shared their own statement regarding safety measures to be taken during the coronavirus outbreak, but it did not mention any measures to be made in the event of a Premier League season cancellation.

“We have taken proactive measures including cancelling any staff travel to high-risk countries and reminding everyone of good hygiene practices through notices in/around all our sites,” it read.