Premier League broadcasters are expected to offer the option of crowd noise when games resume, with cheers and groans helping to make the viewer sit up
As
Football takes tentative steps into its new normal, the Bundesliga continues to lead. Germany’s cavernous empty stadiums took some getting used to and there have been subtle changes to the football. Home advantage barely exists, there has been an increase in injuries and the ball stays in play longer.
BT Sport audiences in the
UK were treated to another innovation over the weekend: the piped-in crowd noise that had been available in
Germany and the US since the Bundesliga’s reboot in mid-May. Judging by a social-media straw poll, the reaction was largely positive. As enlightening as it has been to hear players and coaches barking at each other, the sound of the crowd, faked as it might be, added a warmly familiar ambience.