Liverpool’s Champions League game against Atletico Madrid may have led to 41 additional Covid-19 deaths
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The SundayTimes (UK) reports that the decision to let Liverpool’s Champions League match against Atletico Madrid go ahead may have “led to 41 additional deaths” due to the coronavirus.
Liverpool hosted Atletico Madrid in the second-leg last 16 tie at Anfield on March 11 in front of a crowd of some 52,000, amongst which there were 3,000 Spanish supporters in attendance.
The Champions League tie was the last major football fixture played in England before the coronavirus lockdown.
According to the Sunday Times, Edge Health, which analyses data for Britain’s National Health Service, estimated the match was “linked to 41 additional deaths” at nearby hospitals between 25 and 35 days later, compared with similar hospital trusts that were used as a control.
At the time the match went ahead, many businesses, schools, restaurants and some matches had already moved to behind-closed-doors in Spain.
Last month, Mayor of Madrid Jose Luis Martinez-Almedia admitted that it was a ‘mistake’ that the game was allowed to go on. ‘It didn’t make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time,’ Martinez-Almedia told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. ‘It was a mistake. Looking back with hindsight, of course, but I think even at that time there should have been more caution.
The UK government defended the decision to allow major events such as the game at Anfield and Cheltenham Festival to go ahead despite the fact 10 days later, social distancing measures were introduced.
Cheltenham Festival attracted more than 250,000 people in the second week in March and research by Edge Health, reported in the Sunday Times, found that Cheltenham ‘led to 37 additional coronavirus-related’ deaths.
Imperial College London and Oxford University have estimated Spain had around 640,000 positive coronavirus cases at the time that the match went ahead compared to 100,000 in Britain at that stage.
March also saw jump horse racing’s four-day Cheltenham Festival in southwest England go ahead as scheduled, with officials citing British government guidance that it was safe to proceed with major sporting events.
According to the Edge Health research estimates cited by the Sunday Times, that decision may have been linked to 37 additional deaths.
