Amid the coronavirus crisis, Man Utd are reportedly set to be forced to call off their pre-season plans which could have netted them around £16m.
The focus currently is rightly on dealing with the virus outbreak and planning how best to cope moving forward, particularly given the number of deaths per 24 hours around the world continues to be in the thousands.
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Football has ground to a halt around the world as a result, with the Premier League is suspended until April 30 at the earliest, while it will surely be pushed back further as the UK heads toward the peak of the spread.
In turn, that could push the dates back to finish the current campaign into the summer, with UEFA postponing EURO 2020 until next year.
However, it remains to be seen how that impacts the schedule for next season, and The Sun report how Man Utd’s pre-season plans could now be called off or altered, resulting in losing out on around £16m as well as an historic first ever game in India.
“The proposed tour hasn’t been cancelled, but it’s on hold until we can determine a timeline for a return to playing football again,” a club spokesman is quoted as saying. “Until we have clarity on when this season might finish and the next one starts, the tour remains under review.”
As noted above, the priority for all concerned right now is to keep the general public safe and to avoid as many deaths as possible.
That has resulted in lockdowns across the globe, and while there is another side to this whereby people stuck indoors could arguably benefit from having live entertainment broadcasted even behind closed doors, no one will be put at risk as things stand.
The longer the wait goes on for the season to resume, it looks as though Man Utd, and undoubtedly many other clubs, will have to start looking at their pre-season plans for the next campaign, and with so many tournaments offering a lucrative package, it could result in a big financial hit.
This in turn could be another motivator for many clubs to finish the season as soon as they are allowed to do so.