(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is under fire for creating a legal loophole to allow tens of thousands of fans to attend Thursday’s UEFA Super Cup game in Budapest amid rising coronavirus cases.
Orban, an avid soccer fan who’s led a stadium construction boom in Hungary, watered down his own ban on foreign visitors to allow attendance to large sporting events such as the Super Cup. Right now, Hungary is struggling to slow the spread of Covid-19 with new infections more than tripling over the last week to nearly 6,000 cases from earlier this month.
An opposition deputy mayor of Budapest said allowing fans to the Bayern Munich-Seville match was a “human experiment” and “incredibly irresponsible.”
Markus Soeder, the head of Bavaria state, where Munich is located, said he felt “sick to the stomach” thinking about the fans heading to Hungary in the midst of the pandemic.
More than 20,000 people, or 30% of the stadium’s capacity, will be able to attend the game in the Puskas Arena. UEFA has called the match a “pilot” on whether games can be held safely during a pandemic.
International competitions in Europe have been played in front of empty stadiums since the spring. Some local leagues, including usually sparsely attended Hungarian competitions, did allow spectators. The U.K. this week scrapped plans to allow fans to return to stadiums as of Oct. 1, citing worsening virus trends.
Hungary has pushed back against the criticism, pointing to health-safety measures including mandatory mask wearing and social distancing at the stadium and temperature screenings. Fans coming from Spain or Germany must show negative virus tests and leave within 72 hours of arriving in the country.
“The Puskas Arena will be a safer place than almost any other place in the country or in Europe,” the Hungarian Soccer Federation said on its website on Wednesday.
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