Liverpool mayor calls for inquiry into whether Atleti game impact Covid-19 cases

Liverpool's metro mayor Steve Rotheram has called for an independent inquiry into why Liverpool's Champions League game against Atletico Madrid was allowed to go ahead and if it impacted the number of coronavirus cases in the city.

Diego Simeone's side prevailed at Anfield on March 11 to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals. But it came against a backdrop of sporting uncertainty because of Covid-19, which has now claimed over 180,000 lives.

The match has since received a huge amount of scrutiny after a crowd of 54,000 - with 3,000 fans arriving from Madrid - were allowed to attend, against the advice of the World Health Organisation.

But Rotheram, who earlier this week said the game should not have gone ahead, has now told BBC Sport that an independent inquiry is required to look into whether there is a link between the match going ahead and a surge of cases in on Merseyside.

'If people have contracted coronavirus as a direct result of a sporting event that we believe shouldn't have taken place, well that is scandalous,' he said.

'That's put not just those people in danger, but those frontline staff in the NHS and others in their own families that may have contracted it.'

The city of Liverpool at the time only had six confirmed cases of the virus, but as of Wednesday morning 246 people have died of coronavirus in Liverpool NHS hospitals.