Budapest (AFP)
The Hungarian spectators will find from Friday, in a restricted audience, the stands of the country's football stadiums, a first in Europe where the resumption of several national championships was done behind closed doors.
The size of the stands will be reduced: spectators will be distributed so as not to occupy more than one seat out of four, with at least one horizontal row of separation between them.
"The clubs organizing the meetings must ensure that social distance is maintained in the stands in order to guarantee the conditions of epidemiological control," warned the national federation (MLSZ) in a statement Thursday.
Fans of the modest teams of Kaposvar and ZTE, respectively last and penultimate of the championship, will be the first to inaugurate this device for the meeting between these two clubs, Friday evening in the Kaposvar stadium which usually has 7,000 seats.
Five other championship matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday, including one expected between Budapest championship Ferencvaros Budapest and Puskas FC, club in the hometown of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a great football fan.
The match will be held at the Pancho Arena, a recent 3,500-seat stadium located near the secondary residence of Viktor Orban in Felcsut, a village of 1,750 inhabitants located some 40 km from Budapest.
Hungary is not known for its boosted stands with an attendance of stadiums of 3,000 spectators per match on average, outside Budapest where the Ferencvaros meetings attracts thousands of supporters.
This low attendance in terms of the capacity of ultra-modern stadiums built since the coming to power of Viktor Orban prompted some ironic comments on social networks on Thursday.
"We already maintain social distancing very well in stadiums," laughed a surfer.
The few European countries which have relaunched their championship in May, or are about to do so, are playing behind closed doors.
Hungary, which has 9.8 million inhabitants, recorded Thursday more than 3,816 cases of infection with the new coronavirus since the beginning of the epidemic and 509 deaths.
After the rest of the country where restrictions have been gradually eased, the city of Budapest will be able to fully reopen its bars and restaurants on Friday.
© 2020 AFP