La Liga Considering Canned Crowd Noise & Projected Stats as Behind Closed Doors Planning Continues
La Liga is considering options to enhance the audiovisual experience of behind-closed-doors matches, should football resume as planned.
Since football was suspended in March, professional clubs in Spain have been given the green light to training this week, after reaching an agreement with government authorities as part of the part of the phased plan to de-escalate lockdown restrictions.
All players must pass COVID-19 tests before returning to training, while health protocols will follow a similar model to that in Germany. All going to plan, matches will restart in mid-June, with 11 gameweeks still to play in Spain's top flight.
Official statement.#LaLigaSantander and #LaLigaSmartBank clubs to return to training this week.
— LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) May 4, 2020
There has been no talk of 'voiding' the season, or ending it prematurely, as is being done in France and the Netherlands.
However, regardless of whether or not La Liga does resume on schedule this season, crowds are not expected to be allowed to return to major sporting events in Spain until as late as 2021.
According to SPORT, La Liga is working on proposals to help enhance the atmosphere of behind-closed-doors fixtures, which would feature only around 300 people in the actual stadium.
As has been mooted for the Premier League, La Liga is considering 'generating ambient audio' in the stadiums (essentially, pumped in crowd noise) to create 'an environment where the home team feels supported in their stadium'.
SPORT posit that the proposal could help players and coaches 'psychologically', while also making TV broadcasting of empty stadiums more palatable (or at least masking player conversations).
Along with audio, La Liga is also apparently considering ways to cover up the visual lack of fans too. It is noted that the two options proposed are; covering the stands in team colours to 'imitate' fans, or to use tarpaulins onto which in-game stats could be projected.
After 27 gameweeks played, Barcelona sit top of La Liga on 58 points, two clear of Real Madrid.
⚽? Real Valladolid plan to start the individual training sessions on the 11th of May. The medical and Covid-19 tests will be completed between the 6th and the 8th of May#pucela #RealValladolid pic.twitter.com/6eJIp6wrbq
— Real Valladolid CF EN (@realvalladolidE) May 4, 2020
There is also a fierce battle for the European places in Spain with five points separating third-placed Sevilla and seventh-placed Valencia.
Espanyol sit bottom of the table on 20 points, but there is just six points between Real Valladolid (15th) and Leganes (19th).