Football Betting Tips

UPDATE: Football Postponments & Cancellations

Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, all major football leagues in Europe have been postponed. The Premier League and EFL have both been called off until early April at the earliest, while several other top leagues have been postponed until further notice.

English Leagues

With nine rounds of fixtures left to play, the Premier League has had to step aside for the ongoing virus. The initial return date is April 4th, but many believe the postponement will be extended. Similar applies to the Championship, League One, League Two and the National League, with the 3rd April their earliest return date. Football chiefs in England are due to meet on Thursday 19th March to discuss plans for the remainder of the season at which point we might have a clearer idea.

Other Leagues

Italy, who have been hit hard by the virus, are hoping to return to some kind of action in May, although nothing has been confirmed yet. The Bundesliga, La Liga and Ligue 1 are all suspended. La Liga said there would be no football for at least two rounds but that again seems very likely to be extended.

In general most leagues, including in Scotland and the Champions and Europa Leagues, are suspended “until further notice”. Whilst some have talked about not playing until at least the start of April the reality is that we are unlikely to see any major football played, even behind closed doors, until much later.

There is the odd exception to that, with some matches in Australia, Nigeria, Belarus and one or two other nations still set to go ahead. Some of those will be played without spectators so all in all it really is very slim pickings for football fans over the coming weeks and months.

Euro 2020 Delayed to 2021

In addition to all that, UEFA Euro 2020 has been postponed until 2021 in the hope that this will allow the European leagues to finish their domestic seasons over the now-free summer. The semi-finals of the play-offs (to decide the final four teams at the Euros), which were due to take place in March, have also been postponed, with those now pencilled in for June and the four finals to follow at some stage after that.

Other International Matches & Cups

The 2020 Copa America has also been delayed for 12 months and various international friendly games that were scheduled to take place have been cancelled. That includes the likes of England v Italy (March 27) and England v Romania, which wasn’t due to be played until the 7th June.