Opinion | Coronavirus: NBA and Premier League will have to wait as China refuses to play the game

With the sports world on hiatus amid the coronavirus pandemic, people want answers. When is it coming back? What will it look like when it does? And how on earth are we going to finish these leagues that were stopped midway through and show no signs of resuming? From the English Premier League and the Uefa Champions League to the NBA, there are several multibillion-dollar industries looking for a solution and the hope was that it was coming from China. Sport in China was among the first to stop because of the coronavirus outbreak, some of it did not even get started – while the Chinese Basketball Association was called off during its Lunar New Year break, the Chinese Super League was postponed before the season began. Oscar, Hulk & Ricardo Lopes arrived at Shanghai Pudong Airport last night just 10 minutes before the restriction on foreigners entering the country took into effect (23:50). They returned Shanghai from by a charter flight. On the way the flight landed at Malta to add oil. pic.twitter.com/JZuhHNSThv — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) March 28, 2020 After being the first to call a halt to sporting events, it looked like China was going to be the first back to “normal”, or something close to it. This belief was fuelled by the CBA calling back its foreign players last month so they could complete quarantine ahead of the season reportedly restarting in mid-April. Just as it looked like the CSL was going to finally kick off – an April 22 date had been mooted – as its teams returned from their training camps overseas and foreign players were called back from their holidays. Update on the delay of basketball’s return in China (bad news) but the CBA still intends to play this season per @DraftExpress (good news). These challenges are a possible look to NBA future: https://t.co/q1SjPPN2vN — Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) March 31, 2020 In turn, that had driven plenty of articles in the West on what the likes of the NBA and English Premier League could learn from the impending CBA and CSL comebacks. The NBA resuming in Las Vegas, the Bahamas or a Midwestern college town were mooted based on this. Now? All bets are off. Neither of China’s flagship sports tournaments look any closer to a return to action. On March 31, the General Administration for Sport, the Chinese Communist Party body that governs all of the nation’s sporting bodies, put a halt on all plans. They said that “marathons, sports events and other crowd activities would not resume in the meantime” and that a decision on when they might resume would be made in time with the advice of the epidemic prevention and control situation. Would NBA players agree to all quarantine together in a place like a Las Vegas hotel & just finish out the season and playoffs there? Our guys at #TheJump weren't so sure - although what if it ends up being the only way to get the revenue the league needs to pay player salaries? pic.twitter.com/2TjjgfcaH5 — Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) March 30, 2020 It was thought that, with the coronavirus seemingly under control in China and partly because of shutting off sport and mass gatherings, that they would soon be seeing the leagues resume, at least on television, with games to be held behind closed doors. Plans to resume the CBA by playing the rest of the season in just one or two cities had been widely reported, with Dongguan or Qingdao being those bases. The plan would see all of the teams based there and play out the rest of the regular season before starting the play-offs. The ideal scenario would be that fans would eventually be allowed in to watch. LISTEN @CoachMarkAmaral: On plans Chinese Basketball Association is making to get back into game action; No way CBA returns with fans in stands https://t.co/Dqvj9eLFpU — TSN Radio Vancouver (@TSN1040) April 2, 2020 Similar ideas had been mentioned for the CSL’s 2020 season, which had originally been scheduled to start on February 22 and clearly needs some reorganisation to fit into this year. Even though any such plans needed to be signed off by the GAS and the Centre for Disease Control to go ahead, it had looked viable – so what’s changed? Perhaps the scrutiny from overseas media on China – rather than say the ongoing Belarusian football league – has made the already reluctant powers that be even more cautious to make the first move? Also, China might be further along in dealing with the coronavirus but it is not out of the woods. While conspiracy theorists shouting about how there are cases not being reported and a large spike on the way might be wide of the mark there are legitimate concerns of a second wave, which has seen the likes of cinemas closing again. The restriction on foreigners entering China takes into effect. Among 12 foreign head coaches in CSL, Bruno Genesio, Uli Stielike, Cosmin Olaroiu have not returned to China to take charge of the pre-season training. Choi Kang-hee's assistants have not returned either. pic.twitter.com/2CQ8qG3Zje — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) March 28, 2020 An increase in Covid-19 positives reported coming into the country from overseas and fears over how big any second wave might be as the original lockdowns in cities around the country begin to ease has seen China ban foreigners from entering its borders, and there appears to have been no exemption for athletes. Hulk and Oscar arrived just before the borders closed, with less than 10 minutes to spare according to reports, but others were not so lucky and around half of the CSL’s foreign players and coaches are now trapped outside of China. Then there was Marouane Fellaini’s positive test for Covid-19 shows how this could impact sport, the Belgian was allowed in to China at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport then travelled across the city to the railway station to get a train to Jinan, where his Shandong Luneng side are based. He was only tested when he got to Jinan. General Administration of Sports published an announcement: No Marathon/other sporting events leading to congregation would be held ‘for the near future’. China has started to concern symptom-free carriers of coronavirus despite of imported cases to avoid 2nd-wave infections. pic.twitter.com/Rtlr6MnMRb — Titan Sports Plus (@titan_plus) March 31, 2020 There is no playbook for this situation – the Spanish flu epidemic did not affect global sport the same way and it is pretty obvious when a world war ends. It would seem China are not willing to write it. When they are finally being praised for how they have handled the epidemic, why would they risk that by rushing sport back? People have forgotten that China was actually reluctant to call sport off and that a leaked GAS memo calling sport off until April was swiftly deleted and now it is equally reluctant to call it back on. One major league is going to have make that leap but it won’t be China. The people may need their bread and circuses but no one wants to be the clown who made the decision if it turns out to be wrong.