Impact on sports

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended all areas of life – and sports is not any exception. Social distancing measures, brought in to limit the spread of coronavirus, have had a big effect on sporting fixtures.Every aspect of sport has been affected, from the athletes themselves to media coverage.The coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves round the world, resulting in a public health emergency that has killed thousands and plunged the worldwide economy.

Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has also upended the sporting calendar, with professional leagues everywhere suspending their activities to limit the spread of the virus. Even the Summer Olympics, typically one the world’s most-watched sporting broadcasts, has been pushed back a year. Due to covid major sporting events are getting cancelled everyday, including Tokyo olympics 2020. The events which are taking place are under strict covid measures. The players are not allowed to interact with anyone else outside their bubble. For international tours players are quarantined for 14 days before they start playing, even if one player tests positive the entire team has to quarantine for the next 14 days again. This has greatly impacted the schedule of the game. It even leads to cancellation of the event

Impact of Covid-19 on UAE football players.

The impact of covid can be understood by the interview with one of the football players named Masoud. He is a regular player with a famous UAE club . In his interview he shared

that football is going through a tough time , it’s really hard to play without fans in a silent stadium. Nobody cheers ,which boosts the

confidence of players. But at the same time there is no disturbance and you get enough time to improve skills and fitness. Based on the survey done out of every 20 students 12 participated in school football teams,students spent an average 4 hours participating in sports and this was for relieving their stress. Earlier the most primary concern was getting injured while playing, but now the scenario has changed. People are more concerned about covid rather than anything else.

Impact on health and safety of players and ground staff.

From the interview it’s clear that players and ground staff are much concerned about their health and safety, specially while travelling from one place to another which increases their chances of coming in contact with some positive patients. Before covid players used to play without any worry but during this pandemic, it’s always there in the back of their minds when you are coming dangerously close  to

anyone during the game and this affects the game a lot. Players are not able to give their hundred percent to the game because of stress due to covid.  Since the audience is not allowed there is a big problem in revenue generation. All revenue is coming just through broadcasting rights. This is impacting the sports economy, which indirectly affects sports fraternity. This has also led to joblessness to the people who used to provide catering services in the stadium during games. This pandemic has impacted hundreds of thousands of lives around the globe. Even after one year things do not seem to be okay in sports. There is no sporting event happening with the same enthusiasm.