Rugby to resume in New Zealand with spectators
In New Zealand, the ban on the gathering of people due to coronavirus was lifted on Monday. Now people will be able to enjoy the matches in the stadium. It will begin with Super Rugby League. The tournament will begin from June 13. The first match will be between the Highlanders and Chiefs in Dunedin. The audience is expected to be 25 thousand in this match.
In the tournament, five New Zealand rugby teams will play home and away matches against each other over the next 10 weeks. It will be the first professional league in the world, with spectators getting permission to visit the stadium.
Ready to play in presence of Fans: New Zealand Rugby
New Zealand Rugby Chief Executive Mark Robinson said, “It is a matter of pride that we are the first professional sports league in which the teams involved will play in the presence of the fans.”
🤩 The news you’ve been waiting for! Crowds will be welcome back at Investec #SuperRugby Aotearoa from round 1!
READ 👉🏽 https://t.co/UGFa1bSs2F pic.twitter.com/vcSV7nHUej
— Super Rugby (@SuperRugbyNZ) June 8, 2020
Fans will be able to watch matches without social distancing
New Zealand has controlled Corona to a great extent. There is no new case of corona in the last 17 days in the country. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardon gave this information on Monday. She said that alert level-1 will remain in the country from Monday midnight. Public programs will be allowed under this, including sports activities. Fans will be able to watch the match at the stadium without social distancing. But still many precautions have to be taken.
Database will be prepared for people coming to public programs
She said that we are in touch with agencies selling tickets and organizing big events for Covid-19. With their help, a database of phone numbers and addresses of people gathered in large events will be kept so that it can be used in contact tracing when needed.
At the moment we feel that we have reached a situation where the corona will not spread again in the country. But if there is even a case in sports or big public events, then we have to do extensive contact tracing on a large scale. This database will help in this.
Three big football leagues start in June without spectators
Apart from New Zealand, La Liga in Spain, English Premier League in England and Serie A in Italy are starting this month. But the competition in the three leagues will be in the empty stadium and there is no approval of the spectators.
