The most popular sport today is soccer with millions of fans worldwide, however, because of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, fans are restricted from entering fields.
Although in the English Premier League, certain teams are allowed to have fans cheer during the match (around 2000), which is causing unfair advantages to those teams. The government has made a new system showing how bad the situation is in each city (tier 1, tier 2 …) and that’s making the decision whether fans can enter the field.
“I am just looking at common sense, which perhaps doesn’t go. The presence of the fans has an effect on the results,” said the manager of Leeds United.
Some are saying that tier 2 teams shouldn’t have fans at all because fans impact the players very much, making an unfair advantage. And some are heading in a different direction.
“But I don’t think it is a question really of what difference the fans are going to make, I think it is more of how nice it is going to be for those fans who are selected to be one of those who gets a ticket to be able to see a match live again,” said Hodgson
Fans and others’ safety is also a point to worry about. “At this point, anyone could be spreading the virus including fans,” he/she said.
The virus might be spreading with no one having a clue. Fans could be travel fans,which means they come from another place to watch the match, which is a high risk for others.
“I think a new system could come into play where fans could be quarantined in different areas.”
On a positive note, fans give players the momentum to get through those thrilling 90 minutes. Players are encouraged to do better with support as shown by researchers. “Players just need to focus on the game, because focusing on the empty benches could be a distraction” said Aaryan Ajani, a fan.
Cover photo by Pexels from Pixabay.
This piece by Samara Ajani was produced as part of UpStudio Africa‘s Journalism Workshop with Inaara Gangji in December 2020.
How is it possible that the UK is on their 3rd lockdown but matches continue? Is it that football has become part of our “entertainment industry” as much as it is a sport?