I feel lucky to attend football matches during the pandemic – but there’s a sense of guilt about it too

A matchday now is essentially like seeing the grand illusion stripped back to its bare bones, writes Tom Kershaw. More like a dress rehearsal than a true event

Sadio Mane scores Liverpool’s third against Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round (Getty)

It is, first of all, a great privilege to still be able to attend football matches during the pandemic but, like everything in our lives, it is also a disparate reality to what we’ve known.

Long before kick-off, the first thing you notice is the unusual intimacy. The surrounding streets are all but deserted other than for a few hi-vis security jackets marshalling the absent. The players walk around undisturbed while media scatter the small section behind the dugouts. The pre-match rituals continue belligerently, such as an announcer bellowing into the empty stands, in what rapidly feels like a dress rehearsal rather than a true event.

A matchday now is essentially like seeing the grand illusion stripped back to its bare bones. The sense of show and traces of hysteria all removed until only those 90 minutes remain. Once that first whistle blows, aside from the shouts and pants of players, there is little noise at all. Moments of great drama draw no reaction other than from the protagonists themselves. The feats of genius which would be instantly memorised and laced with emotion are consumed later as highlight packages. There is a huge fortune in still being able to witness those aspects first hand but there is a sense of guilt, too.

After all, football is not built to thrive as a private experience. Matches are tribal occasions to be shared, a distraction, release and fixation inherited by family and friends. It is hard to compare what we see today against that absent rush of a crowd rising as one because it can feel like another world entirely.

The matches are still fascinating. The players’ momentous efforts feel all the more magnified against the silence and, perhaps, it makes it a little easier to think of the words for a live report, too. But afterwards, once you slip back out into the empty streets, there can never be that same thrill of sharing in a moment that might never be forgotten. It will always be an incredible luxury to attend a stadium under these circumstances, but matchdays have always been about more than football itself, and they are not made to be enjoyed alone.

Yours,

Tom Kershaw

Sports Reporter