The coronavirus threat of the return of the public in the stadiums in Europe

Saturday, after their last game of the season, the players of red Star Belgrade celebrated their league title with a crowd of over 10,000 supporters.

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22 June 2020 10h58

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The coronavirus threat of the return of the public in the stadiums in Europe

Adrian Vicente

Agence France-Presse

PARIS — Too hasty ? The appearance of several cases of COVID-19 in football in Serbia and Russia has cast a chill over the foot of the european, who burns to re-open to the public of its stages, long deserted because of the pandemic.

The alert is the more serious is the arrival of Serbia on Monday. The red Star of Belgrade, a grand club of the countries of the Balkans, has announced that five of its players had tested positive to the new coronavirus.

“The players feel good and are in quarantine, strict, in permanent contact with the medical team of the club”, a press release from the club.

Problem, and size : on Saturday, after their last game of the season, the players celebrated their league title with a crowd of over 10,000 supporters. A celebration, in which the distancing required to contain the spread of the virus was far from being observed.

What revive fears of a new epidemic wave part of the stage : Serbia was lifted in June, any limitation on the attendance at gatherings in the open air. From the 10 June, the red Star, again, was playing a semi-final of Cup of Serbia in the face of its rivals Partizan, in front of 16 000 spectators.

The holding of the meeting has triggered the ire of the health authorities in neighbouring Montenegro, which has reported a week later at least seven cases of COVID-19 imported by supporters who attended the meeting in Belgrade.

Game surreal in Russia

Jevto Erakovic, the director of the clinical Center in Podgorica, had then blasted the “behavior of a few individuals irresponsible”.

To make matters worse, several tennis players have announced that Sunday and Monday have caught the coronavirus at an exhibition tournament, in front of a large audience, organized by Novak Djokovic through the Balkans.

In Russia also, several clubs in the championship reported cases of COVID-19 in their workforce. On Sunday, the match Krasnodar-Dinamo Moscow has been postponed by a month after testing positive to coronavirus among the players in moscow.

And Friday, in a surreal encounter (lost 10-1), Rostov was forced to align its youth during a first division match after the quarantine of all of its professional workforce.

A reminder that the pandemic, which has forced most European countries to contain their population, is far from over, with almost 9 million cases diagnosed worldwide and 468 000 dead according to the last balance-sheet of the AFP established Monday.

What cool the authorities of the major european countries where it was already considering the feedback from the public in stages.

Denmark has already started Sunday, when 3000 spectators (28 000 places), required to keep two meters distance between them in the stands, attended a derby between Brondby and FC Copenhagen.

What gauge ?

An experiment by the authorities to assess the opportunity to increase the number of people present in the stands.

In Spain, hard hit by the pandemic, the Liga prepares according to radio Cadena SER the return of the spectators, no date mentioned for the moment, considering the strict rules: pre-registration, mask mandatory, to take the temperature at the entrance where the audience would be divided into several groups and would come by time slots.

In France, where the bodies are hoping for a resumption of the professional matches in a month with the finals of the Coupe de France (to July 24) and League Cup (to July 31), the government has authorized the reopening of the stages from the 11th of July, with a gauge of a maximum of 5000 spectators… several sports leaders already want to enhance.

Noël Le Graët, president of the French football Federation (FFF), has claimed in a press release, “consider an opening next wider spectators for the final of the Coupe de France masculine end of July”, scheduled at the Stade de France (80 000 places).

In the game, the revenue ticket including for instances in which the finances have been undermined by the health situation. And that might be even more in case of resumption of the epidemic. With the european offices of the AFP

Le Soleil