On The Ball | The bleak Anfield night in Liverpool’s history at the centre of a massive Covid-19 spread
- Professor John Ashton says it was ‘incredible’ that the Liverpool-Atletico Madrid Uefa Champions League tie was allowed to go ahead
- Ashton believes it is likely that Kenny Dalglish contracted the disease in a second wave of infections following the match
More than 52,000 people crammed into the stadium to watch Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat. The crowd included about 3,000 supporters from the Spanish capital, which was already emerging as one of the epicentres of the medical emergency. The previous day the assembly of more than 1,000 people had been banned in Spain. The gravity of the situation was becoming clear. Reports from northern Italy were beginning to indicate that a catastrophe was bearing down on Europe. Yet the game went ahead as normal.
“It was incredible that the match was played,” said Professor John Ashton, a former regional director of public health and a vocal critic of the British government’s policy on coronavirus. “It would not have been allowed in Madrid.”
By the time Jurgen Klopp’s team ran out at Anfield to face Atletico on March 11, the impact of football on the spread of the disease was becoming obvious. Three weeks earlier Bergamo-based Atalanta had played their Champions League fixture against Valencia at the San Siro and 40,000 supporters made the 60km journey to Milan. Bergamo soon became one of the worst-hit places in the Italian outbreak and the city’s mayor called the match “a biological bomb.” The virus swept across the north of the country.
“The evidence was already out there,” Ashton said. “The game at Anfield should have been cancelled.”