COVID: SPORTS: EXPERIENCE WILL NOT BE THE SAME BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
--SUPERS--\nFriday\nLondon, United Kingdom\n\nMay 15, 2020\n\nGary Lineker\nEnglish former professional football player\n--ALT-\nCurrent sports broadcaster\n\n --LEAD IN--\nENGLISH FOOTBALL (SOCCER) LEGEND GARY LINEKER JOINED C-N-N'S CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS -- WITH NO FANS....\nLINEKER SAYS THE EXPERIENCE JUST WON'T BE THE SAME -- FOR THE PLAYERS OR FOR THE FANS...\nAND HE WARNS THAT TELEVISION AUDIENCES MAY NOT LIKE IT...\n --SOT--\nGary Lineker, English former professional football player/current sports broadcaster: "I played in one game behind closed doors in my entire career because we had some fan problems in the crowd and it was a very strange experience. I imagine after a few games they'll get used to it. . But even watching football on television or soccer, for obviously your American viewers, it's very much different, if you've not got a crowd, in fact that's the same thing pretty much every sport because the crowd adds to it, adds to the atmosphere and it becomes more exciting to watch, on the television. So players, it'll be a little bit like training in many ways, but more important than training. But I imagine though, get accustomed to it, is where the television audience is accustomed to it because it's very different. I think in Germany they've got things like cardboard cutouts, lots of them. Thousands of fans. And there'll be noise pumped through, put through the PA systems, et cetera, to try and generate some kind of atmosphere. So I think Europe is watching very closely to see how it pans out and you know, fingers crossed. It's acceptable because I think it's better that the European leagues were interrupted with about generally about 10 matches to go. So I think in terms of fairness, et cetera, it would be good to finish out the season. Now there seems to be a little bit of a rush to do it because they want to start next season on time. But I don't see that risk because the likelihood is, I mean I listened to your, the, the former guests that was speaking Ed and, and he was speaking a lot of common sense. But it, you know, it's going to go on for some time, so the chances of next season been interrupted are pretty high. I would imagine. So, take our time. Let's see how this season pans out, let's finish it eventually. And then at least after that we can look at next season from a level playing field."\n -----END-----CNN.SCRIPT-----\n\n --KEYWORD TAGS--\nSPORTS COVID-19 GARY LINEKER FOOTBALL SOCCER \n\n