The Return Of Football: A Ray Of Hope Amidst The Gloom - #SportySunday

Jun 28, 20203 min read

|By- Parshva Shah|

Football returned in style after a two-month hiatus in Germany and three-month hiatus in Italy, Spain, and England. The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a barrier, snatching away the normalcy from our not-so-normal lives and putting everything to a standstill.

Italy, which reported the highest number of cases for footballers in any European country, has already had its domestic cup competition, the Coppa Italia, completed and Napoli have been crowned champions after defeating favourites Juventus.

The return of football has been a type of a vacation for millions and millions of fans all around the world. They get hooked to their televisions or mobile phones to catch all the live action and seeing their favourite team play after such a long gap brings a sense of relief to them.

Although the stadiums are empty, which means that no fans are allowed to experience the match by getting a seat in the stands, it is atleast a small step towards adjusting to the ‘new normal’, a step that so far has been a huge success.

These are strange times, players are having to play in front of empty stands. The atmosphere in the stadiums are anything but electric. Some teams thrive on the support of their fans to deliver important results in crunch ties. A lot of players have expressed how they feel weird that they have to play without the crowd. It almost feels as if they are strangled on a desert.

La Liga (the Spanish League), on the other hand, has started an initiative in which the sounds of the crowd, the chants, the hustle and bustle, the applause etc are heard. This does not give an experience half as authentic as when there would be a real crowd creating a lively atmosphere, but it still shows that alternatives are being found and measures are being taken to make everything seem as normal as possible. Fans from Asia even get to see fans using graphics if they watch the match on Facebook Watch, La Liga’s official broadcasting partner in Asia.

Players have worked their as*** off during the quarantine, which has resulted in them preventing injuries and returning to peak match fitness without any further setbacks.

Once the governments cleared the players to start practicing on training grounds, players were asked to train individually, increasing the number of players training together in one group gradually, as the days passed. It was only after one or two weeks of training that the entire squad could train together as a group.

2020 has been a peculiar year to be very honest. The return of football has somewhat restored regularity and has managed to mitigate waves of negativity. Countries are fighting amongst themselves to justify their propagandas but players of different nationalities have come together to play for the same crest and bring joy to the fans.

One cannot deny that this year has taught us a lot even though it has taken away a lot from us. Never in the last five decades has a year been as Herculean and gut-wrenching as this one, yet football has taught us that one needs to be perseverant to weather the storm.

Things had to improve someday, sooner or later. But football has salvaged the pride and a leaf could always be borrowed when dealing with other circumstances.

The doom and gloom still prevail, but football has stood firm, looking the pandemic eye in the eye. Hope is the only envelope that is covering our fragile state of minds. It’s all going to get better. Till then, if you aren’t a football fan yet, you could try watching a match.

Until next time….