The majority of football leagues in Europe are currently suspended until at least early April; including including the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga. The ban has now reach the MLS and most recently Liga MX in Mexico.
There is still limited football on, but for the most part, people are wondering what to do with their time. One football fan has claimed that it is only fair to award the Premier League title to Crystal Palace based on their most recent form.
Finally a sensible solution https://t.co/Wi1XzzG4WR
— Steve Parish (@CEO4TAG) March 14, 2020
It is the Twitter admins of football teams that have been coming up with ingenious ways to keep themselves and other football fans occupied during this time of no football. Southampton FC were scheduled to play Norwich this past weekend in the Premier League and their Twitter admin attempted to play their game via a tic-tac-toe competition.
Hey, @NorwichCityFC! 👋
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 14, 2020
We might as well have a game of something! Your move... pic.twitter.com/QPTYqkSy3U
However, things didn't go as planned; the match was seemingly abandoned at half-time due to Norwich not taking part. But all hope was not lost at the St Mary's Stadium due to a dramatic half-time substitution, which involved Manchester City replacing Norwich and the scores being reset at 0-0.
Unprecedented scenes here, as a controversial substitution is made right at the start of the second half...
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 14, 2020
🔛 @ManCity
⬅️ @NorwichCityFC https://t.co/mlYjantLpi
A back and forth battle between the two sides saw Southampton earning themselves a point against defending Premier League champions, Manchester City.
An intriguing tactical battle comes to an end.
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 14, 2020
One point please, @premierleague... https://t.co/atgMlEwdii pic.twitter.com/EqsVLajTfE
The following day Southampton were finally able to face-up against Norwich, this time via FIFA 20. Both sides selected a fan to represent their team for the match. In a tight affair which saw five-goals; Southampton came out on top, with a 3-2 win.
It's a W for #SaintsFC and @SaintsVenny! 🙌
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) March 15, 2020
Thanks for turning up for this one, @NorwichCityFC! 😉 pic.twitter.com/FcJNyyM3Oa
Tic-tac-toe wasn’t the only game being played across Twitter; moments after this game got underway a Connect 4 match was started between Hull City and Bayern Leverkusen.
Time for some international football...
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) March 14, 2020
It's @bayer04_en v @HullCity... and it's connect four!
Who's winning this one?#bbcfootball https://t.co/tpscKd4MJB
The international match-up caused a huge shock when the final whistle blew. In a game which took just under three hours to complete, English Champions side Hull City, came away 4-0 winners against the top-flight German team. However, it was clear about half-way through the match that Hull were going to stride on to victory.
Who wins?
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) March 14, 2020
The following morning, Hull decided to remind their fans of the miracle they performed the night before.
Good morning all! 😁#HULB04 | #hcafc | #theTigers pic.twitter.com/Dumi1huz2v
— Hull City (@HullCity) March 15, 2020
More bad news followed for Bayern Leverkusen as they suffered another shock defeat less than 24 hours after their loss to Hull. They were facing another English side, this time it was Aston Villa women’s team; who made history after winning their first ever European game, when they beat Leverkusen 4-0. After their second consecutive defeat, Leverkusen announced that they would be stepping-back from the world of Connect 4 to purely focus on playing football.
Like Michael Jordan tried baseball, we tried emoji Connect 04. After recent performances, we think it’s time to step back and focus on our greatest strength, ⚽️ , and enjoy watching the true Connect 04 pros.
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) March 15, 2020
Well done and good luck with the rest of your season @AVWFCOfficial ! https://t.co/ByqIVBRxGd
Moving away from virtual board games, one game of football was technically played in the Premier League, with Watford and Leicester playing their game via Football Manager. A closely fought affair, saw Watford have a player shown a straight red early in the game and Leicester were able to capitalise and take the lead. Leicester were not able to take all three points away, as a dramatic stoppage time equalizer from Watford saw the game finish 1-1 and both teams coming away with a point.
The show must go on 👀
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) March 14, 2020
Watford vs @LCFC brought to you by @FootballManager!
Come on you 'Orns...#WATLEI pic.twitter.com/VFDaWJKDhg
The award for the best entertaining social media game was not won by either of these teams but will surely be won by Leyton Orient’s efforts. Leyton Orient are the second oldest football team in London and are currently in 17th place in League 2, which is the fourth tier of professional football in England. The O’s Twitter initially tried to set up a 64-team tournament on FIFA 20, which was open to any team on the game.
🤷♂️ Sure, connect four is cool but we’ve got a better idea!
— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) March 15, 2020
We need 63 other teams to enter a knock-out FIFA 20 tournament.
To enter, all we need is the club to RT this tweet.
We will host a live draw this Tuesday…
🙏 for an away day to @ManCity #UltimateQuaranTeam #LOFC pic.twitter.com/7aycsrn48r
The majority of the teams that entered were English teams, from the Championship, League One and Two, but they also found teams from outside of England and even Europe entering the competition. Danish team, FC Midtjylland are taking part in the tournament, as well as, Belgian side, K.V. Kortrijk and Dutch side, RKCWaalwijk. There is also a strong representation of Australian teams with, Sydney FC, Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory. They quickly reached their 64-team capacity with Manchester City being their 64th entry.
🙌 Good morning everyone!
— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) March 16, 2020
Early this morning, we hit the 64 mark, as reigning Premier League champions @ManCity registered their interest!
Since then, we've had 5 more teams try to get in...
So we have two options for you to decide where we go next with this...
👇 pic.twitter.com/QeEL8WAOJN
Leyton Orient then received five more teams wanting to enter the tournament and through a Twitter Poll decided to expand the tournament to 128 teams. Since then Feyenoord, Amiens SC and West Brom have all joined. With teams entering every 10 minutes, the 128-team capacity will soon be filled up, making the live draw on Tuesday night even more intriguing!
All this fun and games on Twitter is a way to keep football fans entertained during this period of no football. However, there is still a serious, ongoing situation in the world due to the Coronavirus. The Roma’s Twitter found a way to highlight the good that is happening in the world, sharing a video of Italians singing with one-another whilst their country is on lockdown and encouraged other people to share their heart-warming videos on Twitter, with the opportunity to be sent a signed Roma shirt.
Locked down and bored? Whether you’re in Rome or anywhere else in the world, reply with an #ASRoma balcony video and we’ll send a signed shirt to the best one we see 🏙 pic.twitter.com/Awt40jMM97
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) March 14, 2020