The cancellation of the Egyptian Premier League competition and other leagues in the coming days seems inevitable, in light of the government’s efforts to limit the spread of new coronavirus, halting all sports activity until the end of this month.
Egyptian Football Association’s five-member normalisation committee is well aware of the severity of the situation. Almost half of the league matches have not been played yet and is no available time. As sports activity halt is expected to extend further.
League cancellation will hurt Egyptian Second Division teams, which approached the promotion to the premier league.
Egyptian Second Division teams are wondering if their league will be cancelled as well, or will three teams promote to the premier league to bring the total number of teams to 21, as the second division has only five rounds left. This will be answered by the EFA as soon as possible.
The normalisation committee is appointed by FIFA, which would allow them to take tough decisions without fearing the impact of their re-election chances.
Certainly, financial losses will be disastrous in this case and will be suffered by all clubs, especially major ones such as Al-Ahly, who has a sponsorship contract worth EGP 500m. While smaller clubs are poised to suffer.
