london the uk government was following scientific advice by allowing major sporting events such as the liverpoolatletico madrid soccer match and cheltenham horse racing festival to go ahead days before the coronavirus lockdown a senior minister saidat every stage in this crisis we have been guided by the scientific advice and have been making the right decisions at the right time finance minister rishi sunak said on monday during the governments daily news conferencethere is often a wrong time to put certain measures in place thinking about sustainability and everything else at all parts of this we have been guided by that science we have been guided by making the right decisions at the right time and i stand by thatthe governments deputy chief scientific adviser angela mclean said the suggestion made by a reporter that allowing the soccer game to go ahead in the northwest english city of liverpool on march 11 contributed to the spread of the coronavirus was certainly an interesting hypothesisit will be very interesting to see in the future when all the science is done what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in spain she said