ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a timeline of the first three months after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to professional football in the UK. It places specific questions that emerged around the relevance of sport at the time within wider sociological debates. In particular, the targeting of football by senior political voices is discussed within the context of the system of celebrity that simultaneously places professional footballers on a pedestal and accuses them of being unworthy. It documents how key stakeholders within the football industry responded to the unprecedented crisis through an examination of how the drama played out through the media, highlighting disparities in power, not least in connection with how ‘Project Restart’ was presented and received when the return of professional football at the top level was deemed to be possible. Finally, there is a summary of the Blue Family Campaign, which was how the case study club, Everton FC, branded their response to the pandemic. This took the form of a universal and targeted programme and provides crucial background for subsequent chapters of the book which explore more deeply the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on staff, the local community and football fans.
