When the Covid-19 pandemic spirals out of balance, the world of football faces a bleak future

The unsettling familiarity of games played in vacant stadiums heralded the start of a new year marked by the same complexities that afflict world football. Also maintaining competitions without interruption remains a threat with a second outbreak of Covid-19 ravaging too many nations, accelerated by mutant strains. Attempts to reintroduce fans to games were made across Europe, but as 2020 drew to a close, the turnstiles were gradually closed.

At the start of 2021, games in all major European leagues will be played in isolation, a barren world devoid of the raucous atmospheres that athletes thrive on. The focus of tournament organisers is to keep the show running  until the mass release of vaccination  in order to prevent long pauses with no play, which may result in expensive rebates to broadcasters. During the Christmas season, the English Premier League started to compete. However, with the league announcing a record number of coronavirus outbreaks, making sure that matches and training sessions don't spread diseases should be a top priority.

“I know it's not a good thing to say, but these are trying times for everyone,” she says "Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea boss, said. "We love football, but safety and wellbeing must always come first.”

The World Football in 2020 demonstrated that, no matter how determined regulatory bodies like UEFA are not to be derailed by a virus epidemic, the pandemic will potentially force decisions out of their hands. The rescheduled European Championship, which was postponed last year, is still in the works. Before UEFA will decide whether or not spectators will be admitted into games, it must first determine where the games will be held and before Covid-19, the preparations for the Euros 2021 is difficult enough, with games taking place in 12 cities and 12 stadiums throughout Europe. Alternative proposals are being discussed that will significantly reduce the number of venues used if the situation does not change.

The postponed Gold Cup and Copa America across the Americas are less difficult operations in June and July, but they also focus on preventing coronavirus outbreaks in the team environments. If planning a 24-team tournament around Europe amid a pandemic wasn't difficult enough, UEFA now has to deal with another difficult situation. The future of its club tournaments is still uncertain, with disagreements over the Champions League structure needing to be resolved.

The power struggles that tore Europe apart at the start of 2020 are still going on. “There is no longer any time for egoistic thoughts, there is no longer any time for selfishness,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in the hours after the hesitant cancellation of Euro 2020 last year. “This is the start of a new era of world football.”

However, Ceferin is already mediating between the competing interests of clubs and leagues vying to reshape or defend the Champions League almost a year later. Breakaway tournaments are a constant challenge as the top teams ostensibly headed by Real Madrid seek larger windfalls while alienating the dominant clubs from the bulk of smaller clubs.

As the powerhouses suffer an extraordinary season of upheaval, with Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Paris Saint-Germain all failing to win their leagues at the start of the new year, talk of a European Super League could only develop. Last year, a seemingly generous bid  to support clubs struggling financially during the pandemic was exposed as what appeared to be a naive power grab by the English leagues' six biggest teams. The failure of "Project Big Picture" did not, however, dampen the appetite for change.

However, it was the players' advocacy that flourished in 2020 and inspires them to use their platforms on the field to support broader society in the coming year. Players in England continue to take a knee before kickoff, flooding the arena with strong symbolism in the hope of greater unity in the game and an end to bigotry.

Marcus Rashford, a Manchester United and England forward, demonstrated how a player would threaten a government on child malnutrition and cause a policy change. Aside from the pandemic and the poverty it has caused, football is being consumed by health issues over the long-term effects of heading the ball.

Concussion replacements will be trialed from start in the new year, which will be one of the most important steps to avoid players suffering from head injury. It could also be the year heading is scaled back, in training at least, as studies highlight the dementia risks for former professionals.

“One does not get a concussion just by heading a ball,” said Michael Grey, a neuroscientist at the University of East Anglia in England. Yet the brain continues to wobble about within the cranium, and there is always some damage.” The neurodegeneration is caused by the damage caused by years of heading the ball. It's a sobering message that brings all the wrangling about competition styles, video assistant referees, and match postponement decisions that occurred after the pandemic into context.

Many football fans are looking forward to returning to the stadium to cheer for their players. Crowds, traffic, and fireworks are all absent from the arena.