Weeks after all other professional sports across the world have been put on hold indefinitely in an attempt to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Belarus Premier League continues.
Players roughouse each other, and fans pack the stadiums to capacity. A few fans are wearing masks, but most are just pretending that the world has not changed. It's like nothing ever happened there.
In fact, very little has happened in Belarus, with just 150 cases of the virus reported, and no deaths. Then again, I'm not sure how far I would trust any official figures coming out of Belarus. And their problems may be just beginning: according to the respected Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre, the number of cases in the country went up 50% OVERNIGHT, so it will be interesting to see how things progress from here.
"Strongman" populist President Alexamder Lukashenko is not at all worried about the virus, calling it a "frenzy and psychosis", and suggesting that people take to the sauna and drink vodka to protect against it, and then just get back to work. Lukashenko himself recently took part in an ice hockey match -taking a leaf out of Putin's playbook and then taking it a step further - continuing to insist that "there is no virus here".
Meanwhile, soccer-starved fans throughout Europe and Asia are getting into the Belarusian games in a big way, and television rights for live games have been sold to Russia, Israel, India and several other countries. The quality of the soccer is not great, but it's the only game un town. Somehow, I don't think we should be encouraging these people...
UPDATE
Ten days later, Lukashenko continues to deny the existence of the virus in his country, and the Belarus Football League continues to play its games. Except, the crowds in the stands are getting sparser and sparser... You don't suppose all those missing supporters are sick, do you?
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