“When fans are not in the stadium, it is an absolute soulless place to be” – COVID-19 and the lessons to learn from empty stadia.

Empty stadiums have become a reality for sports fans over the last twelve months since the rapid development of Britain’s COVID-19 crisis. As cases of the virus began to rise exponentially in March 2020, English football was entirely paused from the grassroots level up to the highest tiers of elite football, leaving behind vacant stadia up and down the country. These hollow shells, once riddled with camaraderie and rattled by the deep bass choruses of supporters, have since remained dormant.

Other than a brief stint of limited capacity attendances in the hazy period of ‘tier two’ restrictions,  most players have not performed in front of fans at all since last March. With this has come a change in the fundamentals of club football as home advantage has become almost entirely redundant across the top leagues. A Reuters report published before English football’s restart last June revealed that 56 ‘ghost games’ in Germany saw a 21% drop in home wins, while visitors were unbeaten in around 79% of fixtures. The 2020/21 season has seen similar anomalies as reigning Champions Liverpool have lost their momentum, while last season’s underdogs Sheffield United have sunk to the depths of the Premier League, all within the space of one lonely and unprecedented season.

Yet it is not the players that have suffered most at the hands of empty stadiums.  It is not the billionaire owners watching from faraway lands, nor the TV companies cashing in on increased broadcasting. It is not even the clubs who are counting their pennies more wisely, nor the managers they employ. Those who have been struck the hardest by this inconceivable change to match days are those at the very heart of the game – the football fan.

There has been a lot of discussion amongst football media throughout the pandemic regarding the players and how their games have changed without the undeniable force of fans in the stadium. Whether it be a dip in form or an improvement, each player has been affected by playing in front of thousands of empty seats. Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson told Sky how “It’s just not the same when scoring goals.”

“Without the fans and the noise around the stadium, it’s not the same. You haven’t got the same adrenaline or excitement” he says. He is just one of many who have admitted that the lack of fans has had an intense effect on the game and the way players feel about it. Before COVID, fans would harmoniously groan at the sight of a misplaced pass and scream at deafening heights for a goal. It was this intense emotion that propelled the players and the game itself. 

Speaking to Midlands football broadcasting icon Tom Ross, who has spent the last forty years reporting on games for the fans, he emphasised how the last twelve months of behind-closed-door football must become a learning curve for the powers that be in the English game. 

“The gap between football clubs and their supporters has never been greater or wider than it is at this moment” he says, highlighting the ever-expanding disparities between clubs and their supporters. As Ross is one of few media bodies allowed to attend games, he has gained an insight into what is it like to be in attendance at a football game without fans. “When fans are not in the stadium, it is an absolute soulless place to be.” He explains that, whilst the COVID-19 protocols are necessary at present, they have stripped the spirit and soul from his matchday experience as a reporter. “If they said that this was the way it would always be in the future, nobody would be interested in watching.”

When previously reporting on games for radio, frequenting the airwaves as a friendly companion for home and away adventures, Tom would feed off the buzz of a crowd to fuel his reportage. “You are guided by the roar of the crowd. The roar of the crowd is what makes the game exciting, even games that might not be that exciting” he explains.

“The whole dynamic of how you manage and coach [football], how you watch it, how you report on it, has all changed.” The absence of fans has transcended beyond just the matchday atmosphere to the playing style, the squad choices, and the way in which the media covers games. Without the emphatic cheers and intimidating scorns of the thousands in football grounds, it has been difficult for those like Tom to create the same thrilling and engaging match reportage for fans who are now forced to watch or listen at home.

“There is a word I use called desire – its above hard work” Tom adds, “The fans are the ones that create this desire because players don’t want to let them down.” With the fans being held in such high regard now that they are unable to attend games, Tom is hoping that there will be an “attitude adjustment” amongst the hierarchy of English football so that the fans are treated as more than just an income. “Football fans have just been herded in and out, money taken - buy your shirt and your scarves and they’re happy.”

“But for me and you, the fans, it is all about the glory.” The glory is fans rising off their seats when the ball is carried into the box by the number 10 with a diamond of a left foot or singing a sarcastic chant at the expense of their agitated opposition. Glory is watching your team beat a side they were never supposed to or leaving the ground with a puffed-out chest to show your club has painted its colours all over the city. 

English football has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly at the lower levels of the football league where opulent television deals and ownerships are not prevalent to fund the upkeep of clubs. At this level of the game, all the way up to the dizzying heights of the Premier League, clubs are crying out for the passion and desire of the football fan. The glory days for football fans cannot come soon enough, not just for the survival of clubs in England, but for the integrity and soul of the game.