Professional football has been hit hard by the pandemic, but leagues are slowly resuming their activities, and games will be back soon—at least on television.

However, can football return to normal after the pandemic?

Some say the current crisis has only exposed what was already a broken system stricken by commercial exploitation, corruption, and excessive transfer fees and salaries, and if anything, the COVID-19 crisis may present clubs, players, and officials with a historic opportunity to restore the integrity of the beautiful game.

We celebrated what many of us are so dearly missing the days, and discussed what lies ahead with a stellar line-up of football experts and managers, including:

Jonas Baer-Hoffman, general secretary of FIFPro, the worldwide representative organization for 65,000 professional footballer

Ebru Koksal, chair of Women in Football and former CEO of Galatasaray Istanbul

Kerstin Lutz, the managing director of partnership services at TEAM Marketing AG, who leads sponsorship and media partnerships for the UEFA Champions League

Célia Šašić, football champion and special advisor, UEFA EURO 2024 to the DFB EURO GmbH.