With soccer’s global calendar upended by the coronavirus, FIFA is scrambling to draft new regulations for player contracts and transactions between clubs in an effort to create a road map out of the sport's unprecedented shutdown.

Lawyers at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters have huddled (virtually) with representatives from leagues, clubs and players unions to provide a framework to deal with the cascading issues created by the pandemic.

With leagues across the world idle — many nearing the end of their seasons — and thousands of athletes at home, unable to practice, clubs are increasingly concerned about their financial futures. Many of them have implemented patchwork measures on their own to try to mitigate the effects of the stoppage.

Now FIFA is trying to come up with a plan to deal with the aftermath of the frozen seasons and the eventual restart of soccer and all the business that goes along with it. Estimates for the costs of the shutdown vary widely, but industry leaders are bracing for an enormous impact. Andrea Agnelli, the head of Europe’s trade body for clubs, told his members they were facing “the biggest challenge the game and our industry has ever faced.”