Portuguese Federation of American Football cancels season outright

The Portuguese Federation of American Football, FPFA, (Federação Portuguesa de Futebol Americano) has announced that 2020 season will now be cancelled outright due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FPFA had suspended the regular season for the top league in Portugal in mid March, partway through the season.

At the time of the suspension of the six team league, the Porto Mutts and Cascais Crusaders were each leading their respective divisions (North and South) with 3-0 records.

• The 2019-2020 season competitions are cancelled, finally stopping at where they were at;
• There will be no rank awarded to any team for the 2019-2020 season;
• The format and calendar of the 2020-2021 season will be examined by the FPFA Directorate and, of course, discussed with the teams in good time. At his point, it is more important that the teams have the necessary calm and time to return to sports activities;
• We will be attentive to the needs of teams, in terms of both the on-the-field activities and off-field/financial issues, always being open to dialogue between teams and management.

Coronavirus situation in Portugal

To date there have been a total of 39,392 cases of the coronavirus recorded in Portugal with 1,534 deaths attributed to COVID-19.  Ranked 24th in the world in terms of deaths from COVID-19 per million population, Portugal has been one of the most successful European countries at beating back Covid-19, despite also being one of the poorest. Still, some lockdown measures, including an 8 pm curfew, are being reimposed in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon after a spike in new coronavirus cases. Despite a relatively low coronavirus toll  in Portugal, the authorities are worried that several hundred new cases are being found every day in Greater Lisbon. But the government maintains that the outbreaks are localized and traceable to particular workspaces and crowded neighborhoods.