Football stadiums after the coronavirus – A proposal

Abstract

As we are writing this article, the first phase of coronavirus has passed but in some countries it seems that there is going to be another phase (an increase in the number of coronavirus cases). In general, during the first phase of this Covid-19 pandemic, sports have stopped, competitions were cancelled as many football events (like some from Champions League) were known to have been a reason for the wide spread of this infectious disease. As we'll move on and the cases of patients with Covid-19 will hopefully decrease, sports will come back to life and will once again gather fans (certainly still with a lot of restrictions). In this article we shall present the current solutions applied for football events and the impact they have upon the football supporters, as well as different solutions proposed in order to bring the public once again back on stadiums, keeping our focus on safety for the users. For a football club, to be able to fill its stadium with supporters (based on current physical distancing rules) could mean the difference between winning or losing, between being relegated or champions of that football division. In this tough period, having next to you the “12th player” (the supporter) would mean a lot for everybody (from the supporter who can leave all his problems at the gates of the stadium to the football club that will create, once again, the specific atmosphere of a football event). Football stadiums, through their components and equipment, based on the design re-envisioned by architects and engineers, can decrease the likelihood of becoming infected with Covid-19, the challenge being also re-envisioning a meaningful atmosphere and experience for the supporters.