Sports events during this COVID-19 pandemic will be very weird indeed. And with the upcoming return of the English Premier League, we’ll get to see the extent of the strangeness that awaits us. Eurogamer reports that British sports subscription service Sky Sports will be using crowd noises from the FIFA video games when the League returns.
The report states that the crowd noises will even be team-specific to “replicate the vibrant atmosphere of Premier League clashes”. These sounds will come courtesy of EA sports, which has the exclusive license to make the FIFA games. If you don’t like the idea of the artificial noises, viewers will have the option to turn it off.
You can kind of see why that idea would be given consideration. After all, there have barely been any football matches that have taken place in empty stadiums. Now, though, this will be the norm, and naturally some would miss the atmosphere a full stadium adds to the matches. But on the flip side, it would be a jarring experience still if there’s no pretend crowd to go with the pretend chants and cheers.
At any rate, the English Premier League will be back on 17 June. Whichever will be your preference when you watch the matches, you’ll be able to find out next week.
(Source: Eurogamer)
