While COVID-19 has defeated the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League in the past week, the active leagues across the world kept playing today.
In our Coronavirus Times edition, we have matches from both Africa and Europe, as the last stronghold of football as we knew it pre-COVID-19.
BURUNDI PRIMUS LIGUE
In light of the first cases of coronavirus discovered in the country, Friday afternoon produced a big day of the Burundian football with a match that had direct impact on the title race.
Musongati FC, running in the second place behind Le Messager Ngozi, played against mid-table Rukinzo at the Stade Intwari in Bujumbura. The score in halftime was 1-1, and in the second half, each team scored once more to make it a 2-2 draw in end.
Worth noticing: the Burundian FA has announced that on Sunday they will release their decision regarding the continuity of the football activity in the country.
Another Primus Ligue’s result from today:
AS Inter Stars v Ngozi City 1-1
BELARUS VYSHEYSHAYA LIGA
The only league in Europe started its third matchday for the season with great anticipation. In the past week, Belarus’ Premier League gained hundreds of thousands of new fans from around the world. Dozens of Twitter profiles in English were opened as official and unofficial teams’ accounts. Meanwhile, local ultras groups have started a boycott against their own league, directed at the indifference and denial demonstrated by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime regarding the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
Friday hosted two games, as in the earlier one FK Gorodeya snatched a 0-1 lucrative away victory from Belshina Bobruisk, while in the main event Dinamo Minsk hosted Torpedo Zhodino.
Dinamo is one of the most prestigious sides in Belarusian football, with a rich past in the Soviet era. Yet in the present, they are more of a big name, but not a big deal. Dinamo has opened the season with two straight losses and started this matchday in the last place.
If there’s a rival Dinamo needed to meet today, Zhodino was probably the one. The first half was all the Whites needed as Vladislav Klimovich made it 1-0 in the 21st minute, from within the box.
Three minutes to the halftime whistle, Karlo Bručić doubled the lead and made it 2-0 to the traditional Belarusian giant. The forward was at the right place at the right time, securing the advantage for his friends.
The second half saw no goals, and Dinamo clinched its first victory of the season. The capital club has managed to get away from the boiling bottom part of the table, but is still looking up to their city rivals, FC Minsk, who are the league leaders.
Somewhere in the afternoon, the Belarusian FA has called off youth football in the country. The Belarusian Premier League is the only league playing right now in Europe.
The ex-soviet country, that some may refer to as the last dictatorship in Europe, has so far listed around 350 coronavirus cases. Together with the ultras boycott and the FA’s decision, these might be the first signs for the end of Lukashenko’s football party.
On Sunday, a new league will join the apocalyptic party of Coronavirus Times’ football: Tajikistan.