Vietnam league restarts with packed fans as virus risk abates
NAM DINH: Thousands of fans poured into stadiums in Vietnam on Friday as country resumed top-flight soccer without social distancing measures or curbs on crowd sizes, owing to its success in combating the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Matches in Vietnam’s professional league were suspended in March but with no coronavirus deaths and just 328 confirmed cases, the communist country is eagerly pursuing a return to normalcy to get its economy back on track.
The stadium in Nam Dinh was close to its 30,000 capacity on Friday as the home side lost 2-1 to visitors Viettel in one of three opening V. League matches, where spectators stood shoulder-to-shoulder with few face masks to be seen.
Hand sanitisers were available as stewards performed temperature checks on fans, who were asked to wear masks as they entered.
“If we were scared of the virus we wouldn’t have come,” said Viettel fan Dinh Van Tam.
“The measures taken to fight the virus were good to keep our health safe, that’s why everybody is having fun.” Vietnam has won praise for its aggressive coronavirus testing and a mass, centralised quarantine programme, putting it on course to revive its economy sooner than others.
The V. League’s decision to pick up exactly where it left off bucks a global pattern of countries preparing to restart leagues without supporters, while discussing changes to rules to handle fixture backlogs, the lack of atmosphere or fears about fans gathering outside grounds.
Leagues in Spain, England and Italy are set to resume later this month, while the German Bundesliga has already restarted with a haunting atmosphere at empty stadiums and muted goal-scoring celebrations.
Vietnam’s national team captain Que Ngoc Hai of Viettel said it was wonderful to see a full stadium.
“I’m not saying this to compare us with other countries, but Vietnamese football has returned after the COVID outbreak, it showed how well us Vietnamese have fought the virus,” he told Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian league resumed on Friday after an almost three-month break due to the novel coronavirus pandemic with fans allowed at stadiums but many of them violated the rule for occupying every third seat in the stands.
On Tuesday Sports Minister Krasen Kralev issued an order, allowing spectators at stadiums if they took up no more than 30% of a given venue’s capacity and with supporters sitting on every third seat.
TV footage, however, showed that at least several dozen fans failed to observe the rule in front of Kralev in the southern city of Plovdiv where second-placed Lokomotiv Plovdiv beat resilient Etar Veliko Tarnovo 2-0 in a slow-tempo encounter.
Congolese striker Dominique Malonga scored his first goal for Bulgarian Cup winners Lokomotiv after coming on in the second half and the hosts needed an own goal by Etar’s Anton Ognyanov to put the game beyond doubt.