Could Sport Exhibition Games and Friendlies be Created to Help UK Morale?

The immediate future of sporting events around the world looks very uncertain due to the coronavirus outbreak currently gripping the globe.

Many things have been affected, but there has been a big impact on sport, with leagues and events cancelled, suspended or moved date to accommodate the fight against the global pandemic.

There will be a time when sport returns, which fans will be excited about, but who knows when that will be. Many discussions continue about how leagues from this season will end if indeed they will end at all and that will no doubt cause a lot of upset and controversy when it is revealed.

If those leagues are unable to return to finish this season then could we see sport of a different kind take centre stage, with the main focus being to help people in the UK remain positive through these tough times.

War-Like Friendlies Could Take Place

As highlighted by The Economist here, during the second world war sport was cancelled with many players being enlisted to join the armed forces. However, that didn’t end sport completely. We saw a variety of friendly matches and special leagues created to allow sporting events to continue throughout the conflict.

This was all designed to keep morale high in the country, could we see the UK take a similar stance and try to re-create that this summer?

The idea would be that a number of sporting stars would be tested for the coronavirus and then quarantined so they didn’t get it. These athletes would stay virus-free and because of that, they could compete against each other behind closed doors.

These could be pitched as friendly games, all-star games or just exhibition matches but it would be sport of some description and likely something that we would all watch.

The games could happen across a number of days, designed to give sports fans something to watch over the summer. TV stations would broadcast these, being free-to-air would be vital to allow an audience as big as possible, as this is what an idea like this is all about.

The Economist said that according to surveys, 59% of American people are sports fans. That number is sure to be similar in the UK, so there would certainly be a market for something like this.

What we all want is for real sport to come back and entertain us, whether it is this season coming to an end or the new season beginning. However, there is a chance that it won’t be possible and for that reason, we may need to think outside the box and look at what happened in the past.

Generally speaking, no one really likes friendlies but that would soon change if something was organised for entertainment purposes this summer. It remains to be seen what, if any, sport we see over the coming weeks and months, but what we do know is that the population will take pretty much anything right now.