The pandemic has changed a lot of things, and one seemingly colossal change in the sporting world was no fans in the stadiums. This change highlighted the importance of fans more than ever. Players went on record saying they couldn’t play well without fans and struggled to get the same rush. On the other hand, fans never experienced anything of sorts and watching games on television without jam-packed stadiums was a bizarre feeling.
The referees were probably the only people who benefitted from empty stadiums. Data produced during these games backed all of the above claims, with referees giving fewer yellow cards and home teams accumulating fewer points per game and scoring fewer goals per game without any fans. With football slowly getting back to normal and stadiums hosting to maximum capacity, we ask some passionate fans across the globe what it felt like to have no football and, if any, then without any fans. With a surge in covid cases in many parts of the world, we also speak about the possibility of football going behind closed doors again like it already has in Germany.
