by Tim Stannard

Letter sent to European federations emphasizes that finishing leagues early due to COVID-19 virus is "last resort."

The Belgians have caused quite a few waves in sport - words which may not have been written in the history of the world before. 

Well, not since Hercule Poirot won a bronze medal in speed-skating in 1924, anyway.  

The announcement of plans on Thursday for the Belgian league to be wrapped up early - one game short of finishing the regular season - caused quite the spooking with UEFA who were forced to react with a vaguely ominous letter to all 55 federations in case any were planning the follow the same route as their apparently rogue colleagues in Brussels. 

UEFA's federation meeting on Wednesday had reemphasized the notion that every effort had to be made for domestic leagues in Europe to be completed, even if that date was not until the summer months - providing the go-ahead is given by government and health authorities. 

The Champions League and Europa League were even furloughed to make way for a condensed number of games in the calendar. 

A joint letter was sent to all of Europe's federations by UEFA, the European Club Association and the president of the European Leagues on Thursday night suggesting that any decision by individual leagues to finish now would be "premature and not justified."

Indeed, to double down on the warning, UEFA wrote that the organization reserved the right to assess the "entitlement of clubs to be admitted to 2020-2021 UEFA club competitions" should leagues chose to end early, writing that "stopping competitions should really be the last resort."

The Sports Burst live show helmed by Gabrielle Amado will be looking at the impact of this latest move at 12PM ET on the beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page, YouTube Live and beIN SPORTS XTRA. 

Sports Burst PM will then wrap up the day's news and get the latest from our correspondents at 7PM ET on beIN SPORTS. That show is then followed by a new edition of the Keys and Gray show which looks at the impact of the COVID-19 virus across the world of sport. 

Premier League meets to plan next steps as criticism falls on clubs

One league that is definitely doing everything possible to avoid stopping is the Premier League, a group that is meeting on Friday to try and find a path forward in an incredibly bleak health environment in the UK. 

One decision set to be taken immediately is to confirm the league's suspension past April 30th which is the current deadline. 

As for what happens next has been quite the topic with all manner of theories and solutions apparently being discussed from forcing all 20 clubs into two locations to play the season out in isolation or even relocating the league to China for the summer. 

The clubs might also be discussing how to improve their public profile. Unlike Barcelona's players for example who have accepted a 70% pay cut while paying the full salaries of non-playing staff, four teams including Newcastle United and Tottenham have come under huge criticism for furloughing non-playing staff - and taking advantage of government funding to support this - while still keeping the footballers on full salary. 

It very much goes against a plea from Boca Juniors striker, Carlos Tevez, who said that top players can "live six months or a year without without receiving (wages)," and should make sacrifices in these troubling times. 

Everton set to take Bale and James off Real Madrid's hands 

Staying with the Premier League and one club in particular might be doing a huge favor to Real Madrid in the summer / autumn. 

It is no secret that Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez seem to be on the personal hit list of Coach Zizou, with both high-profile making sporadic, bit-part appearances for the team this season despite some hefty salaries and admittedly decent soccer abilities.

However, one former Real Madrid coach in the form of Carlo Ancelotti might be helping out the current one with Everton being linked with both footballers in the next transfer window in an attempt to avoid finishing eighth in the EPL every season. At least one eyebrow raised over that move. 

Barcelona might get a helping hand from Chelsea, who are eyeing up Philippe Coutinho, a player currently on loan at Bayern Munich.

Meanwhile, PSG look set to definitely lose at least one striker this summer with reports in Italy suggesting that Mauro Icardi does not wish to make his current loan move from Inter permanent. The Argentinean is still holding out for a transfer to Juventus. 

That is slightly worrying news considering Edinson Cavani will be out of contract and the future of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at the club are hardly concrete. 

While on the topic of PSG, beIN SPORTS is looking back at the season and player that began its current dominance of Ligue 1. 

Starting on Saturday April 4th, 5PM ET is the time for a daily rewind on the 2012-2013 campaign when King Zlatan arrived to kick off a new era.