With competitive sport given the green light to resume in the UK and the Premier League set to return on June 17, let us look at how Liverpool Football Club have adapted to the challenging situation which they’ve have been faced with over the past few months.
Liverpool have kept supporters entertained through the use of their stand-alone football channel LFCTV – streaming a selection of classic Liverpool games for free including Liverpool’s FA Cup final against West Ham United in 2006 and their famous Champions League night in Istanbul – tweeting out live updates from the games as if they were being shown for the first time.
On social media, Liverpool FC have kept supporters up to date with news surrounding the resumption of the Premier League and reminded fans of memorable games in Liverpool’s history using the hashtag “On this day”.
At the start of the outbreak, the club also shared short clips from the start of the team’s home workouts over Zoom calls which allowed fans to remain somewhat connected with the squad and gave supporters something to look forward to.
When training sessions resumed on May 19, these platforms were used to share numerous photos and videos of the Reds preparing for their upcoming matches and most recently, the club shared highlights from Liverpool’s 11 a side game which the Reds played alongside one another at Anfield last week.
Liverpool’s social media channels have also shared messages from Jurgen Klopp and his squad during this difficult time including a video posted on March 26 which showed players, coaching staff and the manager giving their support and gratitude to health care workers around the world.
Even the players themselves have taken to social media to lift the mood amongst supporters with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain joining in with the Tik Tok craze to share his synchronized dancing with girlfriend Perrie Edwards, whilst Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson shared a video of him taking on the crossbar challenge in his back yard.
When training resumed, Liverpool followed the strict guidelines in place which saw players travelling to Melwood by themselves and getting changed at home before participating in a small group, non-contact sessions. When clubs unanimously voted for the return of contact training on May 27, players began training as a group whilst minimizing any unnecessary close contact which gave supporters some great footage to enjoy as the squad interacted with each other for the first time in almost 3 months.
Throughout this process, the club has also participated in the mandatory testing of players, coaching staff, and managers in which there has been a total of 13 positive results from over 5,000 tests. So far, Liverpool have reported no positive cases within the club.
There have also been a number of other positive story’s which have emerged from the pandemic as well, such as the partners of Liverpool supporting the foodbank fundraising scheme and donations made to local hospitals in support of their work.
Jurgen Klopp took some time out to address fans who had supported their local community through the club including Brett Duffy, who had been a volunteer at the LFC foundation for over 3 years.
Financially, however, owners Fenway Sports Group reversed their decision to use the government’s furlough scheme to pay 80% of staff wages in March after the decision received an abundance of criticism from the footballing world.
Although it is currently unknown how big of an impact Covid-19 will have had on the club from a financial point of view, it is expected that Liverpool will loose up to £13.6m from there being no matchday revenue this season and at the time of writing, it has been reported that Liverpool will not be signing RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner this summer after the asking price of £53m was too deemed as being too expensive for the club following the serious cash-flow deficit caused by the pandemic.
