Football wouldn’t be called ‘the beautiful game’ without the fans. In these harsh times, the sport had to sacrifice one of its fundamental elements, with most of the top tier leagues opting to play the games behind closed doors.
The Russian Premier League, however, has been permitted to accommodate the fans to fill 10 per cent of their respective stadium’s seating capacity. The decision does come along with certain risks involved.
Russia has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe. And it didn’t take long until the pandemic showed its adverse effects on Russian football. Several players from various clubs have been tested positive for the virus.
Consequently, the games are being forfeited by the affected clubs, while the clubs that can’t opt to forfeit are forced to field players entirely from their youth systems, who themselves haven’t played in months.
The situation has deeply affected the sport and might even worsen if things don’t turn around.
To deal with these hard times, Zenit St Petersburg faithful provided a much-needed morale boost to the entire nation in their recent match against Krylia Sovetov.
The fans unfurled one of their trademark tifo and pyro show in the Gazprom Arena.
The goosebump-inducing pre-match show sent out a powerful message to the football world. No matter how enormous the obstacles are, the beautiful game will rise above it, eventually.