Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa accused UEFA head Aleksander Ceferin of spreading coronavirus (COVID-19) in Europe by allowing football matches to take place when the virus was already present.

Ceferin, who is also a Slovenian national, is a former president of the Football Association of Slovenia. He has been the president of UEFA since 2016.

“From concerts and football shows in Italy and Spain, the virus has spread rapidly across Europe and tens of thousands of people are and will continue to die as a result,” Jansa was cited by Svet 24 on April 9.

The accusation came a day after Ceferin criticised the Slovenian government response to the coronavirus epidemic.

Jansa said that concerts and football matches were not canceled due to "greed for money" even after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic.

“Their move was not only criminal, but greedy and irresponsible. Because of this, the spread of the virus has also threatened our country. The match at the San Siro in Milan between Atalanta and Valencia [on February 19] was a biological bomb, after which nothing is the same again," Jansa said.

According to international media, experts also pointed out that a Champions League game between Atalanta and Valencia was one of the biggest reasons why the Italian city of Bergamo has become one of the epicentres of the coronavirus pandemic 

“[It was] mid-February, so we didn’t have the circumstances of what was happening,” Bergamo mayor Giorgio Gori was cited as saying by New York Post on March 26.

Italy has recorded over 21,000 deaths related to coronavirus, of which over 10,000 in Lombardy, where Bergamo is situated.

“If it’s true what they’re saying that the virus was already circulating in Europe in January, then it’s very probable that 40,000 Bergamaschi in the stands of San Siro, all together, exchanged the virus between them. As is possible that so many Bergamaschi that night got together in houses, bars to watch the match and did the same,” Gori said.

Slovenia has reported over 1,220 coronavirus cases and 56 related deaths so far.