On The Ball | Coronavirus crisis underlines importance of football’s match going fans in new world of armchair supporters

When professional football returns for Europe’s big five leagues, it’s likely to be behind closed doors.

I was at Manchester United’s last game, played in front of empty stands in Linz, Austria, last month. It was awful. United won 5-0 and a resounding away win in the knockout stage of any European competition is impressive, but it all seemed so wrong and not just for the Austrian side set for their biggest ever game. They lost the advantage of a home crowd who’d helped them enjoy their finest European run, but was playing the game better than nothing?

Public safety should come first and vast crowds spread viruses far easier than the 200 or 500 at a game behind closed doors. The players? They want to be playing again as soon as it is safe.

It only stopped a month ago but I miss football. It’s not only the games, but everything around them: the noise, colour on the streets, travel and meeting interesting people along the way, the community that comes with every tribe. The change of scene that comes with leaving home and going to an event in the fresh air is good for the mind and the soul. For many fans, normal life is suspended for a few hours in a swirl of the adrenaline-infused irrational behaviour. There’s anticipation before games and elation or despondency after – all because a group of strangers wearing different coloured shirts from another group kick a ball into a net fewer or more times than the other.

Games bind fans together, they spark humour and there’s immense power in a crowd. Scott McTominay’s late goal in last month’s Manchester derby, the final game to be played at Old Trafford, wouldn’t have been as special celebrated in front of an empty Stretford End. The emotion and noise made the moment – and I’ll resist digging out any clubs whose fans already apply social distancing by keeping so many seats empty.