European Soccer’s Leaders Plot a Speedy Return, With or Without Fans

Carlo Ferraro/EPA, via Shutterstock

In Italy, soccer stopped as fans of Lazio, a club based in Rome, were dreaming that their two-decade wait for a league title might be ending, buoyed by an unbeaten run that started in September.

In England, Liverpool was on course to end its 30-year championship drought with an all-but-insurmountable 25-point lead. But these teams, along with many others across Europe, have had their narrative arcs frozen in time by concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

As the virus spread across Europe, the talk was about when soccer would be stopped — games were first played behind closed doors, then postponed and then subjected to blanket bans as governments moved to…