Dummies in the stands in Brest and a hundred people in Borisov: the coronavirus made football stadiums in Belarus empty

Two thousand rubles for a virtual presence and eight hundred real fans

Every week, Belarusian football causes more and more sympathy among fans around the world. It would seem that a championship of not the highest level should quickly get bored with spoiled spectators, but due to the lack of an alternative, attention to the Major League is only growing.

And the Belarusians themselves regularly give reasons to talk about themselves. Either the judge will award five penalties in one match, or the Isloch accordionist will make everyone smile. Another reason to speculate about local football was the unusual action of the Brest Dynamo during the first semifinal meeting of the Belarus Cup with Shakhtar.

In the previous season, the team broke all attendance records. Home games of the current champion were visited by an average of 8839 fans. However, the coronavirus pandemic scared away people from Belarusian stadiums.

On Saturday, a game of white-blue with “Slavia” as part of the 3rd round of the national championship was attended by only 546 people. In addition, the hosts lost and fell to the tenth line in the standings.

To solve the issue of attendance, Brest went to extreme measures. On April 5, the club launched the sale of tickets for the cup match, and on the eve of the match with a principled rival, it notified its fans about an unusual offer - the opportunity to virtually visit the Brestsky GOSK so as not to risk health during the distribution of COVID-19.

Everyone was offered a virtual presence at the stadium, a real ticket for the match, a pre-match magazine and a 10% discount on all attributes in the online store. At the same time, the details of the action were kept secret. The club promised to send tickets for magazines by mail.

True, the opportunity to attend the meeting was virtually expensive - 67 Belarusian (2 thousand Russian) rubles, while ordinary tickets were priced from 2.5 to 16 in local currency. But fans from all over the world could take part in the action. Some of the funds were going to be sent to fight against coronavirus in Belarus.

As a result, before the game, directly on one of the stands on ordinary seats, mannequins in t-shirts of different teams were placed. Among them were “Alania”, “Rostov”, “Liverpool”, “Real”, “Arsenal”, “Chelsea”, “Ajax” and others. In place of the heads of the mannequins, photographs of the faces of the fans who took part in the action were pasted.

Our fans from all over the world seem to be happy! Thanks for your support, guys! 😉⚪️🔵 pic.twitter.com/wX4dCLDtUH

Only 813 people watched the match live, who witnessed a beautiful victory for the hosts. Dynamo twice struck the goal of Shakhtar by the 15th minute and removed all questions about the outcome of the meeting. The blue and white for the first time in five years beat the Soligorians in regular time. Now the Pitmen will have to make a lot of efforts in order to clear the gap in the return match, scheduled for April 29.

Another semifinal meeting of the Belarus Cup ended in a real sensation. The modest “Slavia-Mozyr” at home beat the local long-term BATE hegemon with a minimum score. Moreover, the wards of Mikhail Martinovich were stronger than the Borisovites for the second time in 12 days. On March 28, they also upset an opponent on their field in the national championship - 2: 1.

Last week, the Mozyryans, already at the exit, were forced to capitulate the reigning champion from Brest. Two consecutive victories over the giants allowed the team to enter a group of six teams sharing the second place in the Premier League with six points.

But the affairs of BATE in the national championship are much worse. 15-time national champions for the first time in history began the season with two defeats in a row, and in the third round with great difficulty at home they outplayed the rookie of the elite division “Rukh” - 1-0.

Attack records and postponement of the match “due to the poor condition of the lawn”

In this case, the championship of Belarus at any time can be stopped. According to WHO, more than 860 cases of a new coronavirus infection were detected in the country, 13 of them died. But football is still being played here, although all sports events involving children and adolescents of the Ministry of Sports recommended postponing until April 20.

It was assumed that the country's adult championship will take a break after the third round, at least, local media wrote about this. But the Belarusian Football Federation has not yet decided to take such a step, and its head, Vladimir Bazanov, continues to defiantly visit the stadiums.

“We communicate daily with the Ministry of Sports and the Ministry of Health. They promptly provide information. The leadership of the federation meets with the leadership of the Ministry of Sports. We keep the situation under control. We can stop the championship at any time, if there is enough reason for this, or there are some serious risks, ”cites the words of Federation Secretary General Sergei Zhardetsky“ RB-Sport ”.

However, most of the fans, despite the lack of official prohibitions, already now prefer to watch matches on TV. The third round of the Major League broke all attendance record breaks. On average, only 327 people attended the game. Not a single duel came to more than a thousand spectators. Even at matches of the teams most popular in Belarus, stadiums gaped with voids. The meeting between Dynamo Minsk and Torpedo-BelAZ was attended by only 411 fans, BATE with Rukh - 470.

The worst result was recorded on the game between Smolevichi and Vitebsk - a hundred people. However, the nominal owners were forced to spend their home match in Borisov. For the official reason - because of the poor quality of the lawn, according to some media reports - because of the epidemiological situation in the city.