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BUDAPEST – A showdown between two major European clubs, Bayern Munich and Sevilla, in a high-profile soccer match is expected to be played as scheduled in front of thousands of fans in Budapest on Thursday night despite the sharp increase in cases of coronavirus in Hungary.
The match, for the UEFA Super Cup, will be played at the Puskas Stadium, and organizers say a maximum of 20,000 people, a third of the stadium’s capacity, will be admitted as part of a series of virus prevention measures.
“We work very hard with the authorities here to try to align the circumstances so that it is safe for people to attend,” said Philip Townsend, communications director for UEFA, the governing body for European football.
Hungary is experiencing an increase in recorded coronavirus cases that is significantly higher than the numbers seen when Covid-19 entered Hungary earlier this year.
Budapest was designated a “risk zone” by the German government last week due to a higher number of registered coronavirus cases, and Markus Söder, the head of the state of Bavaria, where Munich is located, warned on Monday of the dangers of the spread of the coronavirus. in the game.
Concerns about the virus in the Super Cup, in which the winners of Europe’s two main club competitions face each other, may have their roots in recent memory. In February, a soccer match was seen as a contributing factor to the acceleration of the virus in Italy.
UEFA has made 6,000 tickets available to both Sevilla and Bayern Munich fans, but on Wednesday it appeared that neither club could muster enough attendees to take advantage of their ticket allocations.
Only 500 Sevilla fans were expected to travel to Budapest, and about 1,300 from Munich, through Wednesday, according to UEFA, although that number could be lowered given concerns raised by German officials.
Of the remaining tickets, an estimated 90 percent have been sold to Hungarian fans. UEFA and the Hungarian Football Association announced this month that it would deliver 500 tickets to employees of the Hungarian national ambulance service.
Ferenc Falus, Hungary’s former medical director, has criticized the decision to go ahead with the game and has expressed concern that fans do not follow social distancing guidelines during the game, or before and after outside the stadium.
“This is a human experiment,” he said.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s enthusiasm for soccer is well known, and his government has aggressively directed public funds to the game at a time when Hungary’s healthcare system remains underfunded.
With coronavirus test positivity rates above 10 percent, Dr. Falus said, “there are no guarantees that this will not lead to more illness, hospitalizations and even deaths in the days and weeks after the game.”
But the concerns of medical experts like Dr. Falus are downplayed by event organizers who say coronavirus mitigation measures will ensure the safety of fans.
“I wouldn’t call it an experiment,” says Jeno Sipos, a spokesman for the Hungarian Football Federation. “It is a priority project in which the organizing committee determines how the game can be played with the strictest security measures.”
Citing a comprehensive risk assessment, Hungarian football officials emphasize that comprehensive measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of match-goers. UEFA awarded Budapest the match in June.
The temperature of the fans will be taken at the doors. Social distancing rules are encouraged for those arriving and leaving the stadium. The use of masks will be mandatory throughout the stadium, but it is only “strongly” recommended to fans in their seats, with one and a half meters mandatory between fans who are not paired.
Social distancing is also mandatory at concession stands, and even the men’s restrooms have been reorganized to provide more distance between fans.
“The organizers placed an extraordinary amount of equipment to disinfect hands throughout the Puskas Stadium,” said Jeno.
However, some fans complain about the lack of consistent guidelines for those trying to enter Hungary from abroad.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, an association of football fans that claims to have members in 48 European countries, said the Hungarian Embassy in Paris had not been able to answer questions about entry requirements for the country just days before the game. .
“It was more difficult to leave my home country than to enter Hungary,” he says, citing what he described as confusion over entry requirements and misunderstandings at France’s airport, where authorities appeared to ignore special arrangements made for travelers at the airport. match.
Upon entering Hungary, he said, he was asked to provide the results of his coronavirus test, which authorities did not appear to notice was issued in French, and he was not asked where he would stay or when he would leave.
Mr. Evain’s search to attend the Super Cup involved “a lot of improvisation and uncertainty,” and he was frustrated that proper information about health and safety protocols was not communicated to fans. “Everything you post has to be very clear, and that has definitely not been the case for this game.”
