Belgium and Italy back to ghost games

Article posted by Coliseum, October 28^th, 2020

Image: vanceva.com

With COVID-19 second wave hitting Europe with full blast, Italy’s Serie A top tier football league will go behind closed doors once again for at least a month following a spike in coronavirus cases in the country.

As the fatal virus is staring Europe in the face, the Italian Government passed a decree that will see sports events going ahead sans fans, doing away with the present rule allowing up to 1,000 spectators at stadia for football games and other sports.

Serie A was finished without fans last season during the restart, though fans returned for the 2020-21 season in late September. But, with the fatal respiratory disease back to plague Italians, fans will no longer be greeted back in stadia.

The new decree clarifies that professional games are allowed in outdoor venues “without fans in attendance”.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the move as part of a series of new measures to shield against the deadly disease as Italy reached 20,000 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend.

As Italy tightens rules on sporting events, organizers of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola circuit have asked for clarification on whether spectators will be permitted to attend the spectacle.

Organizers were hoping to host more than 13,000 people for each race day.

Imola is set to return to the F1 calendar for the first time since 2006 when it stages its race from October 31^st to November 1^st. It is the third Italian Grand Prix on F1’s COVID-19 amended calendar for the 2020 season.

The Emilia Romagna and Rimini’s Coast motorcycle Grand Prix was a one-off motorcycling event that was introduced during the 2020 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, with Belgium facing a ‘tsunami’ of COVID-19 cases, the regional Government has taken a decision to close sports and cultural facilities as residents will face a longer curfew starting today (Monday).

Belgium, one of the European countries worst hit by COVID-19, is grappling with a new wave of the virus and the Government says the above decision has been taken as the situation is “very serious”.

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