Review of the year: A year to tick off: ghost scenes instead of the Olympics and European Championships

After the infection spread from Wuhan, China, worldwide in February and became a pandemic, it gradually hit sport as well.

In March, the Austrian government decreed that sporting events could only take place without spectators. The Bundesliga immediately suspended all games in the two top leagues, and the ÖFB suspended all games two days later. The ice hockey league ended the season prematurely without choosing a champion. Other sports followed immediately.

In mid-March, training at sports facilities was no longer possible, and club operations were stopped. As a result, numerous championships, including basketball, volleyball and handball, were canceled. The sport in the professional and amateur area stood still as in other European countries.

EM and Olympics postponed

The European Football Association (UEFA) also reacted, after a crisis conference on March 17, it decided that the European Football Championship planned for June 12 through July 12 will not take place in twelve countries until 2021 from June 11 through July 11.

On March 24th, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese organizers, after long hesitation, were forced to act, canceled the games planned for summer and postponed them to 2021. Sports that often only get increased attention every four years, stood almost still. Worries about existence instead of glamor and glory were suddenly on the agenda. Years of preparation by athletes came to nothing.

Long aftermath

2020 – a year to forget for many. But the aftermath will continue. Cheering spectators in full arenas, fear-free emotions without a mask and without CoV endurance tests – the return to normal sports is open. The next sporting year is likely to be deeply shaped by the consequences of the pandemic, even if the leagues and associations want to catch up on much of what was canceled this year.

In July, Austria moved into the center of interest by hosting the first globally significant sporting event after the global lockdown. Because Formula 1 started the season with a double event in Spielberg almost five months late. The concept worked for the time being.

Final tournament in CL and EL

The Champions and the Europa League were played to the end in August in final tournaments. Some sports seem to have returned to normal. But time and again, smaller CoV clusters forced sports and teams to cancel and postpone or even to make decisions at the green table.

Far-off shifts

For example, on November 17, the football game in the Nations League between Switzerland and Ukraine was canceled. Numerous cases of infection had become known in Austria’s EM group opponents. The Lucerne canton doctor sent the entire team of coach Andrei Shevchenko unceremoniously into quarantine, the UEFA decided 3-0 for Switzerland. Ukraine appealed to the International Court of Sport (CAS). Some results in other sports are pending. Decisions could have a long-lasting effect.

Numerous sports associations had to postpone their next continental or world championships. As an example, the World Athletics Federation canceled the World Indoor Championships from March 19 to 21, 2021 in Nanjing, China, and postponed the title fights to March 2023 in order to avoid collisions with other major events.

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