La Liga will resume its action with Sevilla hosting Real Betis on June 11. (Source: Twitter/@LaLiga)
What felt unfeasible and almost unethical two months back β resumption of professional leagues in Spain β will now be achieved on Thursday when Sevilla lock horns with Real Betis, owing to La Liga’s cautious approach and forward-thinking in the wake of the global pandemic.
Like Germany demonstrated in its successful restart of Bundesliga with the plethora of arrangements last month, football will return in a different avatar. For safety reasons, cardboard cutouts have replaced fans in the empty stands and artificial crowd noise has become the soundtrack for the armchair supporters fixated in front of a television.
But La Liga has made it their personal mission to make the viewing experience more enriching with virtual crowds and new camera angles when the league returns with the El Gran Derbi.
With the help of MediaPro and Norwegian firm VIZRT, the league will offer superimposed images of seated supporters wearing the team colours in its broadcasts, in a manner somewhat similar to what Denmark’s Aarhus GF did last month. On the other hand, the atmospheric audio of the FIFA video game series will be added in as part of a ‘Sound of the Stands’ project which will dynamically respond to every goal, foul, or near-miss.
“The implementation of such a technology expresses our strategy of being different. In the last five years, we have been investing a lot, both in terms of money and effort, to be the best league on the pitch and in the market. We want our fans to have alternatives, different ways to live the game as we are living in a different time,” Jose Antonio Cachaza, the head of LaLiga India, told
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ππππππππ#LaLiga returns and the stadiums need your applause more than ever! Click here to make your applause heard in the 20th minute of every #LaLigaSantander and #LaLigaSmartBank match! #BackToWinβ LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) June 9, 2020
On the pitch, La Liga aims to cram up 110 matches in just six weeks by scheduling two matchdays per week. Apart from the risk of injuries of players, the prospect of unfamiliar homes is also set to make the top-of-the-table tug-of-war between Barcelona and Real Madrid more complicated.
Instead of its 81,000-capacity Santiago Bernabeu, Los Blancos will play at the home ground of their reserve team for the rest of the season. “Real Madrid will play at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium as their main stadium is under renovation right now, but no matter which stadium, each ground will just have around 250 people,” said Cachaza.
Meanwhile, Barcelona, who are on 58 points from 27 matches, have no other option than to acclimatise themselves with the absence of Europe’s largest home crowd of Camp Nou in their quest to win their third straight title. Away from the giants, it remains to be seen how the empty seats will influence the race for the remaining two UEFA Champions League spots, where only two points separate four teams.
On closed-doors matches, former Sevilla striker and LaLiga Ambassador FrΓ©dΓ©ric KanoutΓ© told indianexpress.com, “The lack of fans might affect the players a little bit mentally but they are professionals who must have prepared in confinement. But it might make things a bit more level as there won’t be so much of a home advantage.”
Although La Liga chief Javier Tebas hasn’t yet ruled out the return of fans to stadiums this season itself, it’s highly unlikely that the title race between the age-old rivals will see the involvement of the fans. The same can be said for the resumption of Premier League and Serie A later this month too, as football will make its way back into the world both sanitized and soulless.
From June 11, all La Liga matches will be streamed on Facebook Watch.