Football Fans Think Seasons Shouldn’t Kick Off as Planned

Source: Statista

As the coronavirus continues to ravage the United States and Major League Baseball’s return to play has been marred by positive tests from day 1, doubts over the upcoming football season are bigger than ever. While the 2020 NFL season is still scheduled to start September 10, two of the most powerful college football conferences in the country have called off all fall sports.

Defying a push from players to go ahead with the season as planned, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 announced their decision this week. “You have to listen to your medical experts,” Kevin Warren, the Big Ten commissioner, said in an interview on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of emotion involved with this, but when you look at the health and well-being of our student-athletes, I feel very confident that we made the right decision.”

While President Trump has been vocal about his support for the resumption of sports, even football fans have grown increasingly doubtful about whether or not the season should be kicked off as planned this fall. According to a Morning Consult poll 51 percent of NFL fans and 58 percent of college football fans think that their respective seasons should be either postponed or cancelled, with only 32 and 30 percent thinking it should be played as planned.

NFL Infographic

The Financial Mismatch in European Cup Football

Source: Statista

After an involuntary months-long break, the European football season is hitting the final stretch this week, as both the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Champions League are scheduled to be finished in tournament form over the next two weeks. Bayer Leverkusen, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and FC Kopenhagen will kick off the Europa League quarterfinals in Dusseldorf and Cologne later today, with the Champions League quarterfinals set to be played from Wednesday to Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal. While names like Inter Milan and Manchester United reek of past glory, the Europa League trophy is often considered the consolation prize in European football, clearly playing second fiddle to the internationally acclaimed Champions League.

As our chart illustrates, it’s not just prestige that the Europa League is lacking compared to the Champions League. In financial terms, the UEFA’s second-tier competition is no match for what can safely be considered the world’s biggest club competition in football. A team that marches through the Europa League, winning every group stage game and going on to win the title will receive €21.3 million in prize money from the UEFA – an amount that most Champions League clubs have earned after the group stage. In total, the eventual Champions League winner can earn up to €82.5 million in prize money alone, nearly four times what the Europa League champion can make.

European Football Infographic