It’s official. The 2019/20 Portuguese Segunda Liga has been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the standings after 24 league matches (of the 36-game competition) considered final.
Nacional da Madeira and Farense are promoted to Portugal’s top flight, while CD Cova Piedade and Casa Pia are relegated. With all four side some distance away from the clubs nearest them in terms of points, the decision has not met with too much resistance.
Further down the pyramid, however, controversy rages as Vizela and Arouca were promoted into the second division, with Olhanense claiming they were entitled to one of the spots.
The transfer of Bruno Fernandes was anything but straightforward. From the initial interest shown from numerous large clubs, their talismanic captain’s future was uncertain right up until the final announcement in January 2020 that he had finally signed for Manchester United on a five-and-a-half-year deal.
In a dramatic opinion article published in several of Portugal’s newspapers and media outlets today, the head of the Portuguese Football Federation, Fernando Gomes, has expressed his concern for the very future of the game.
Football is watching with fear the events triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, which has paralysed it for weeks. The sport has become an increasingly lucrative business. In Europe alone has increased its income-generating capacity fivefold in the last 20 years.
The 2019/20 Primeira Liga will resume at the end of May, the Portuguese government announced this afternoon, amid a gradual reopening of most sectors of the economy in the country, which had been closed down by the Covid-19 pandemic.