Korean Football League Kicks off But With no Fans in the Stadium

K-League, the Korean professional football league kicked off on the Jeonju World Cup Stadium last Friday. The K-League is officially the first big sports competition to spring back to action after the Coronavirus pandemic led to extensive shutdowns in Korea and around the world. Initially, this top flight Korean League was scheduled for February but had been suspended until further notice.

As exciting as it was to have sports events back, there were still a lot of restrictions that came with the relaunch of the K-League football. For starters, to prevent any involuntary infections in the country, the games started with no fans allowed in the stadium. Thus, as big as Friday night’s event was, the match looked like those closed door matches in an empty stadium to punish teams whose fanbase has had a history of getting violent or chanting racist anthems. Nonetheless, the current crisis has led to a remarkably unique situation and the sports industry had to look for ways to prevail.

Strict Safety Measures in Play

With player safety a paramount concern, severe measures have to be taken to make the match environment as sterile as possible. Apart from players, the only people who where allowed to be in the stadium were club officials and a restricted number of journalists. They all had to enter in a single file with a 2-meter apart social distance and their temperature was checked at the entry point. Upon entry, they had to sanitize their hands before wearing face masks and disposable gloves. On top of that, the media personnel were required to leave an empty seat next to each other for the sitting arrangement. 

On the other hand, players were instructed to bow rather than shake hands among other rules like not talking when too close to each other or spitting on the pitch. Substitute players had to wear masks while on the bench and only when warming up were they allowed to take off their masks. Like benched players, coaches kept their masks on throughout the game.

The German Bundesliga is Following Suit

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has already given the green light for the resumption of the Bundesliga season on May 16 after a two-month suspension. It will be the first European league to restart since the pandemic hit. Like the Korean league, there are also serious safety measures put in place, such as playing the games behind closed doors and limiting the stadium capacity to 300 people. Participating teams are also required to go into a 1-week quarantine training camp prior to the event.

As unusual as the Korean league match seemed, the game was as interesting and as competitive as any football match would be. The energy with which the game proceeded gave football fans hope that they’d soon have a chance to back their favorite teams and players next to them in the stadium. If anything, Friday’s game was a shining example of how other leagues can bring back sports even with the difficult situation that the whole world is facing. Everyone in the football world now has eyes on the German Bundesliga as they prepare for their comeback.