Liverpool health chief insists Atletico Madrid game should not have gone ahead
Liverpool's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid at Anfield last month should not have gone ahead, the city council’s director of public health has declared.
Diego Simeone's side travelled to Merseyside on March 10 believing that, upon returning home, they would be forced to play their upcoming La Liga fixtures behind closed doors as a result of the spread of coronavirus.
By that point, Spain - and particularly its capital - had become established as one of the main breeding grounds for the virus in Europe, following a similar curve to that of Italy some weeks before.
However, the UK government's delay in introducing measures meant that 3,000 Atleti supporters were able to make the journey to England for the game, despite warnings advising them against travel.
Liverpool has since seen a rise in cases, the number standing at 309 as of Friday, and the city's new director of public health believes the two things could well be linked.
“It was not the right decision to stage the match,” Matthew Ashton told the Guardian.
“People don’t make bad decisions on purpose – perhaps the seriousness of the situation wasn’t being understood across government at that time.
“Although we will never know, the Atlético Madrid game could have been one of the cultural events and gatherings that influenced the rise in Liverpool.
“It is definitely one to be included on the list for learning and for a future inquiry, so that organisations can learn and not make similar mistakes.”
One Liverpool fan who was at the game recently shared his experience of battling Covid-19-like symptoms in the weeks since, though he has been unable to get tested.
In a piece for the Lancashire Evening Post, Joel Rookwood, a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, wrote on potentially contracting the virus: "It is likely to have been Anfield, where Liverpool played Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on March 11 – a game that should never have been played, particularly with fans present, and especially including 3,000 allowed to travel from Madrid, where the spread of the virus was more extensive than the UK.
"I was interviewed for television stations in four countries before the game. Hands were shaken, goals were celebrated, commiserations were shared, hands were washed.
"It was a communal experience that seems a lifetime ago. Governments and governing bodies should have halted sporting events by then, but those of us who went to one should also have stayed away.
"In the fight against the spread of Covid-19, responsibility is both corporate and individual. If we did not know that then, we certainly do now."
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