K-League kicks off in South Korea, first major football championship in the world to restart
No handshakes, no goal celebrations or dialogues between players: two months after the scheduled date, the South Korean championship begins Friday behind closed doors, with very strict rules due to the new coronavirus.
It is a global spotlight for the “K-League”, which thus becomes the first major championship in the world to restart since the appearance of the Covid-19, even if some minor competitions have maintained their season during the pandemic, like the championships of Belarus, Taiwan or Turkmenistan.
The absence of public and the rules of social distancing imposed on the players aim to avoid a new spread of the coronavirus in this country which was one of the first affected after China at the beginning of the year.
South Korea has managed to reverse the contamination curve with a massive strategy of research and testing of all people in contact with patients. Seoul said on Wednesday it had identified two new cases, bringing its total to 10,806 for 252 deaths. In football, South Korea, semi-finalist of the 2002 World Cup at home, remains one of the strongholds of football in Asia.
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