«ONE YEAR ON AND EMPTY STADIA HAVE BECOME THE NEW NORMAL
One year on from the cloud of confusion that swept Europe, empty stadia have become the new normal
WHEN Rangers line up in the Sinobo Stadium this evening, it will be in front of a backdrop that has become wearily familiar.
The stands will be empty, the atmosphere sparse. Shouts from the players will echo out with clarity once the match against Slavia Prague kicks off.
In that sense, this Europa League last-16 first leg will be the same as any other game played out under pandemic restrictions. The new normal has become merely normal.
It was different when Rangers last reached this stage of the competition. Their meeting with Bayer Leverkusen on March 12, 2020 was the last match played out in front of a full house in Scotland. One year on, no one can say with any certainty when the next one will be.
That first leg against Leverkusen had an official attendance of 47,494. It had noise, colour and sporting theatre. All the things we miss.
But the details of a 3-1 defeat for Steven Gerrard’s side — the destructive elegance of Kai Havertz, the hope briefly generated by George Edmundson’s header — are not what first return to mind. This was 90 minutes played under the cloud of Covid confusion that had settled over Europe and its favourite sport.
UEFA were a mess. Some Europa League games were postponed. Some took place behind closed doors. Some took place in front of full stands.
There was no clarity or cohesion. On the morning of the Rangers match, no one seemed entirely sure if it was going ahead.
Yet, perhaps European football’s rulers should be cut some slack when governments across the western world were still piecing together action plans to combat this new virus. Some quicker than others.
A little more than two hours before kick off at Ibrox, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared on television. He was there to tell the UK it was facing its worst public health crisis in a generation. As Johnson spoke, Bayer Leverkusen fans who had travelled from the worst-affected region in Germany were making their way through Glasgow.
Leverkusen had already announced that the second leg of the tie — scheduled for the following week — would take place behind closed doors. That match was eventually played on August 6.
North-Rhine Westphalia contained almost half of Germany’s 1,151 infections on Monday, March 9, 2020. Germany’s Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, had ‘emphatically encouraged’ the cancellation of all events of more than 1,000 people.
In Scotland, where no Covid-19 deaths were recorded until March 13, there was a strange period of limbo. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had recommended that gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled — but only from the following week.
The Rangers-Leverkusen game was unaffected. As was the Old Firm match due for the following Sunday at Celtic Park. The latter would change within 24 hours.
Domestic leagues in Italy, Spain, Holland and Portugal had been suspended. But UEFA persisted with a tie-by-tie approach in their flagship competitions even as the schedule crumbled around them.
On Wednesday of that week, Inter Milan’s meeting with Getafe and Sevilla’s game against Roma in the Europa League last 16 were both postponed due to coronavirus concerns.
The region of Lombardy, where Milan is located, was at the epicentre of Europe’s worst outbreak. Italy was under lockdown. Roma had earlier announced they would not travel to the first leg of their tie after Spanish authorities denied permission for their plane to land.
Speaking before the postponements were confirmed, Getafe president Angel Torres took a swipe at UEFA. ‘I think they have been sleeping on their laurels,’ he said. ‘There are people who are scared of UEFA, but I’m scared of the people close to me contracting this disease by going to the main epicentre of it where 262 people have died in two days.’
Elsewhere, Wolves were forced to travel to Athens after a request to postpone their first leg against Olympiakos was denied. That match took place behind closed doors.
Manchester United’s 5-0 win over LASK Linz was watched by just 500 fans in Austria.
Ibrox, though, was not the only UK venue with a full house that midweek. The night before — on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organisation officially declared a pandemic — around 3,000 Atletico Madrid fans travelled to Anfield to join a 52,000-crowd watching their Champions League tie against Liverpool.
Schools had already been closed in Spain and mass gatherings banned as the virus began to spread.
In May of last year, Professor Tim Spector — head of the Covid-19 Symptom Study at King’s College London — pinpointed the Liverpool-Atletico match and the Cheltenham horse racing festival as events after which local cases ‘increased several-fold’ and ‘caused increased suffering and death that wouldn’t otherwise have occurred’. No similar scientific claims have been made about the RangersLeverkusen match.
After the final whistle at Ibrox, Gerrard entered the media room to discuss his team’s defeat and stressed that health must come first in whatever happened next.
Just as he finished speaking, the television screens on either side of the podium began to carry the latest newsflash from Sky Sports. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had tested positive for coronavirus. It was clear the game was up.
The English Premier League met the following morning to confirm a cancellation of fixtures until at least April 3. By 11.35am, the SFA had announced all football in Scotland was being suspended for the foreseeable future.
The games eventually returned under new conditions. But the fans have not. Bar a few limited test events, the lockout is reaching its first anniversary.
Hearts owner Ann Budge has already said she doesn’t see full stadiums happening at any time next season unless there is ‘real change’.
Perhaps there is still hope, though. If nothing else, the past 12 months have shown us all just how dramatically change can enter our lives.