The new face of football without crowds could arrive on our screens sometime in June and you can almost hear the cheers go up. Those who have been scrambling around for things to watch in self-isolation will breathe a sigh of relief. Yet once the novelty of having Premier League football back passes will atmosphere free matches keep hold of our attention? More importantly, will it keep hold of the players’ attention?
Football Without Crowds the Foreseeable Future
It Will Take Time to Get Used to
Any football is better than no football. It is also symbolic, helping us feel we are, ever so slightly, slowly getting our lives back. It also remains the only fair way to settle the outstanding Premier League season. Plus there is still a considerable portion of that season left to settle. This equates to a lot of games to be played in eerie crowd-free stadiums. Fans may not really care to start with, they just want to watch football. However, this will likely change after a few rounds of matches, especially the desire to watch a game not involving your team.
Wolves’ trip to Olympiakos in March gave us a little taster of what was to come, as did Manchester United’s tie at LASK, with both games coming in the Europa League.
Crowd Atmosphere an Integral Part of Sport
We love football. We love the sport, the competition and the theatre of it all. Yet we love the atmosphere too. It is an integral part of why we enjoy the game at the highest level so much. Turn off the soundtrack and you have a very different performance to enjoy. Kyah Simon put it beautifully when referring to her recent experience of the situation. ‘Like listening to music with no bass’ is how she reflected on the game.
Which brings us on to the players. If it is going to be weird for fans, think how weird it will be for the players. It will certainly be a test of their self-motivation. Different players will respond in different ways. Yet players feed off the crowd at certain points of a game. The reaction from a near miss, a great tackle or a great save can boost a team. It can feed the adrenalin and push a team on. Never underestimate the influence of the home crowd effect.
A Bitter Sweet Experience
In such a surreal, training ground atmosphere, focus will be key. For clubs not fighting for the top spots or against relegation, motivation will be tough. Without the energy from the crowd, professional integrity and pride will need to kick in. Yes, you can say they are being paid enough so just get on with it. Yet we all know in reality in the thick of a match that goes out the window. When you are two goals down in a game which has no implications for the club in terms of promotion and relegation, and no crowd to get on your back, you are going to need to find your own motivation.
Even for Liverpool, it will be a bittersweet experience. To finally get the chance to secure the much-anticipated title, but to do so in an empty stadium. That has to take the edge off the emotion on the day, even if it can never take away from the achievement. It is not as if they can realistically look forward to a big party with the fans any time soon.
Social Distancing Set to Stay
Social distancing could be here to stay for some time. Like every other walk of life, football must play its part and adapt. Producers in TV studios will be fretting over how best to cover the match without it turning in to a swear fest from the players and coaching staff. Commentators have to apologise enough as it is for what is picked up on the pitchside microphones. Take away a noisy crowd and the commentator could end up doing more apologising then commentating. However, one way forward could be pumping realistic crowd sounds into the stadium as they did recently in the K-League in South Korea.
Watching football is going to be different. Yet at least we will be watching football again. If at any point we start to get a little disillusioned with an atmosphere free game just stop and think back. Recall those football free weeks where we grumbled at the lack of anything to watch on the TV. This is a step in the right direction and one we need to embrace with enthusiasm. At the risk of causing some domestic disharmony, you can always try and create your own atmosphere at home.
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