With the world already missing football, the international media keeps commenting on the plans to resume the leagues once the Coronavirus crisis is over.
This has been a topic in UOL’s podcast Posse de Bola this week. A chat between journalists Juca Kfouri, Arnaldo Ribeiro, Eduardo Tironi and Mauro Cezar Pereira had a few comments on how each country should work from now on.
Former ESPN pundit Juca Kfouri had a few takes on Liverpool, claiming that this break has actually been good for Jurgen Klopp’s side, due to the bad form they had been in.
“What I find very curious about all of this, which is not our topic, but it’s worth noting, is that another guy who got along very well with this stoppage, as incredible as it may seem, was Klopp, because Liverpool were coming down the slope and now he will come back with everything the same.”
Still, he’s claimed that the Reds deserve to be crowned Premier League champions. He’s made a comparison with the São Paulo State Championship, which was stopped in its group stage, with non league side Santo André having the best campaign.
“I’m m not in favour, under any circumstances, of declaring Santo André the champions because there’s no justification for that. Either the Paulista Championship doesn’t go on, and next year there will be another one, or it goes on and the champions are defined.
“But in England, if they make up to cancel the league and don’t give the title to Liverpool, for God’s sake. Don’t come up with ‘why is it like that there, not here?’ There you have no doubt about who’s the best team of the season. If you take that title from Liverpool, England really loses much of the respect I have for it, for the Queen and Churchill. That’s crazy.”
Just bringing some context to these quotes, Juca Kfouri isn’t a sensationalist journalist who’s begging for attention or trying to make things bigger than they are. He’s the kind of old school pundit who tries to bring some romanticism to his comments, and that’s why sometimes his takes go way beyond football.
