In Poland, football matches have a very important social and economic role. As a result, experts from the football and stadium industry have been working on plans for the re-opening since April.
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As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic most European football clubs are forced to play games in empty stadiums, some clubs are complaining that the lack of home advantage is impacting the integrity of the competition. Of course, the impact on national health should always be our priority, but is there actually any truth the club’s claims? Can home advantage be proven statistically and is there any way we could simulate it, even without physical crowds in the stadium?
The competition in Poland has restarted a few weeks ago and several Ekstraklasa competition rounds have already been played. How did the Polish clubs prepare for it? As 25% of fans are allowed inside the stadium, how to decide which fans can enter? Which social distancing guidelines will they have to follow? And how to adapt the crowd management flows?
ESSMA interviewed both Piotr Bielecki, Deputy Competition Director at Ekstraklasa, and Krzysztof Szumowski, Operations Manager at Legia Warsaw, to learn more about Ekstraklasa’s restart and its new guideline which allows for a limited amount of fans to attend the matches (with a maximum stadium capacity of 25%).
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Allsvenskan and Superettan, the highest divisions in Sweden, have kicked-off its 2020/2021 season with 2.5 months delay. ESSMA interviewed both Robert Johansson, Head of Communication at Swedish Professional Football Leagues, and Ola Gällstad, Project Manager at Malmö FF, to learn more about their preparations towards the postponed season.
Obviously, stadium experience had disappeared since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent closure of nearly all football stadiums in Europe. Season ticket holders had to miss out on seeing their team play.