Ukraine’s Ministry of Health has opened soccer stadiums for spectators despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Soccer fans can now attend three soccer matches of the Ukrainian Premier League on July 25 and July 29, said Andrii Pavelko, president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, on July 22 in a post on Facebook.
The matches will take place in Kyiv and Oleksandriya, a city 330 kilometers southwest of the capital.
Previously, Ukrainian soccer clubs played before empty stadiums to avoid the spread of COVID-19. According to the new rules adopted by the Ministry of Health on July 22, spectators can attend soccer games if stadiums are 25% full.
One of the matches will take place at Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv. Under the new rules, the stadium can only welcome 4,200 spectators, instead of 16,900 — its full capacity. All spectators should keep a safe distance from one another and undergo temperature checks, Pavelko said.
After the matches in Kyiv and Oleksandriya, if the rate of COVID-19 infections remains stable in Ukraine, the Ministry of Health may allow all stadiums to sell 50% of their seats.
Although the soccer season has already ended in Ukraine, four Ukrainian football clubs — Kolos, Dnipro-1, Oleksandriya and Mariupol — can compete for the place in the Europa League second qualifying round, the second most prestigious international tournament among soccer clubs.
