Koreans set the ball rolling

On Friday, Jeonju, a small city in South Korea, gave us a peek into the likely future of the coronavirus-stricken sports world — Jeonbuk Motors and Suwon Bluewings played the first match of that country’s national football league, K-League. There were no fans in the stadium, the players were forbidden from spitting on the field, there were no handshakes and celebrations were low-key, even though all players and staff had tested negative for Covid-19. The players, rusty after weeks of no real practice, were not electric on their feet, and there was no energy radiating from the 42,000 empty seats to fire them up. Yet, for sports fans starved of live sporting action, this modest game of kicking the ball was nothing less than manna. The first match of the delayed K-League attracted global viewership, across all continents. No one cared for the result.

Germany is next — their football league, Bundesliga, will resume on May 16 after a 61-day hiatus. Bundesliga’s success would be crucial because it will be the first of Europe’s elite multi-billion dollar leagues to resume play. The scenario in Germany will be a mirror image of the K-League, with intense testing of players and staff, empty stands, and strict adherence to the safety protocols. In Germany, the number of new cases peaked in early April, and the authorities are cautiously optimistic that the worst is over. South Korea earned praise for its handling of the pandemic; the number of new cases peaked on February 29, but by early May, there were days with no new domestic cases.

South Korea and Germany show that containment is the key to resumption of sport. That is the lesson for Indian sports administrators as well. Experts have said the cases are likely to peak in June-July — sport cannot begin before the pandemic has been contained. Made-for-TV sport is the way to go because letting fans into stadiums is out of the question. Clearly, sport, as life, will never be the same in the post-Covid-19 era, whenever that begins. Then, too, a second wave could be only a handshake away. Vigilance will be the key.