The 2020 K League season kicked off on May 8 without audiences, due to COVID-19. At that time, a lot of countries were interested in the first match of K league, because the beginning of the season was much faster than the leagues of other countries. In addition, K League was hoping to have fans back in the stands by July 10th at the earliest. However, it will not be able to do it because of a spike in local infections in Gwangju.

▲ There are only the players in the stadium, without any spectators.

A league official said that he had hoped that the fans will return on July 10. The match between Busan IPark and FC Seoul would be the first match of the season. However, the confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus increased, so the return of fans in the football league is delayed. Therefore, the K League postponed the discussion of the entrance of spectators indefinitely.

▲ We cannot see the stadium fulled with many fans.

A K League official said that they discussed allowing the spectators to enter the stadium on the condition that they should maintain the first stage of physical distance. However, as the number of confirmed cases began to increase again, they decided to delay the entrance of the audiences. Then, the Korea Professional Football Federations said that this year, football leagues are focusing on completing the 27th round rather than spectators' positions. Also, they made the rules which the spectators should follow. For example, they have to seat from a distance of one meter from each other, and all seats are sold online without on-site reservations, preparing the event to prevent the increase of infections.

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus changed many things including watching sports games. Like this, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus made our life boring and uncomfortable. However, we can turn back to our enjoyable life with everyone's effort.

July 4th, 2020
By Yu Dong-hoon