Revival of sports

Enzo Amuele
Enzo Amuele

We all know that sports took us for a hefty ride this year. The impact of Covid-19 is huge in society. Sports bring people together. Sports create friends, and sports are fun. The pandemic has deprived us all of these. A few months ago, the chance of survival for sports just became narrower when the pandemic got worse.

At first, it didn’t feel like the impact would be huge until different media houses all over the world created headlines after headlines of sports, starting with the soccer the premiere league went AWOL for a near three months suspension until just recently that it resumed with a list full of terms conditions of the dos and don’ts.

This pandemic has wiped out almost all sports events nationwide. Some football championships were cancelled completely without crowning any champions for the season. A good example of this is the women’s football league in England, which was cancelled. A number of events have been modified to remove a live audience.

Now tell me what is a premier league without its spectators? Could that be the reason that the coin flipped for most teams who were always on the other side of winning? It is evident now that fans do make a difference, without them there’s absolutely no vibe.

But this is a story for another day. The negative impact of sports was not felt by us until the officials announced that there would be no sports at all. There were many regulations to follow and the sport codes had to adjust according to the different lockdown stages. The Sport Commission announced that during the phase three lockdown from 1 to 29 June, 30 non-contact codes, up from 26 last month, may carry out specified activities.

I can imagine how devastating it has been for the players, athletes and everyone in the sports industry to stay at home and not be able to do something about it. Most high school learners who participate in sports experienced a sense of loss and resentment as their extramural activities have been cut short, followed by a modification of their school hours.

Now that this horrific pandemic is here to stay and we as a society should adapt to the ‘new normal’, we see that there is light at the end of the tunnel as all kinds of sports are gaining momentum, of course with preventive measures in place. The last few weekends have seen the return of sports like rugby, tennis, horse racing and many more. I have absolutely no doubt that we will not go back into the dark hole.

Sport codes have been making the most of their Covid-19-induced predicament and it is evident that there is satisfactory compliance with the regulations.

I’m proud of all the people in this industry who didn’t lose hope when times were tough but instead kept on persevering. As they say, tough times don’t last, only tough people do. I applaud all the sportsmen and women for keeping their heads up throughout this challenging time. Keep on keeping on, legends.