The government have been urged to conduct an investigation into links between Liverpool hosting a Champions League meeting with Atletico Madrid and a spike in cases of coronavirus in the city.
Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram has called for an inquiry into whether the area's high number of Covid-19 deaths - which stood at 246 as of Wednesday - could be related to last month's fixture.Â
Despite Madrid having emerged as one of Europe's early hotspots for the virus, 3,000 fans were allowed to travel to England to watch their team contest a European last-16 tie on March 11.
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And Rotheram believes that decision constitutes a major error that may well have cost lives 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 told BBC Sport.
"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.