As football tournaments around the world come back, albeit to empty stands, Indian football star Sunil Chhetri though is worried playing in the stadium without fans.
Chhetri, who turns out for Bengaluru FC in the Indian Super League (ISL), feels if Indian football come back and without fans, it will be an issue, as everyone will hear their absuses during the game.
Chhetri was addresing a webinar organised by non-profit organisation YUVA, along with badminton star PV Sindhu and shooter Anjum Moudgil apart from cricketers Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan.
"These superstars (Sindhu and Moudgil) play a game very nicely and they are very well-behaved, they don't abuse," Chhetri said.
"So if there are no fans, people will get to know our vocabulary of abuses. We utter nonsense, but we are allowed to say anything, except to the referee. We are dirty, we are ugly. If the fans are there, they are loud, and it [the abuse] all gets subdued. But if they're not there, my god..."
The Indian football star also spoke how players in Germany and South Korea are being tested prior to games and training sessions.
"The Korean League and Bundesliga are checking every player every single day before he trains. When they go to the match, they have already been tested that they have no virus. But you never know, because some can be asymptomatic. That's why, for a second layer of protection, they are saying don't hug each other, don't spit and stuff like that," he said.
"But I think the first stage is training only. Matches are only once a week, but you train every day. It's going to be 30 players minimum, 12 coaches, a ball boy and a kit man. Everybody is going back home, and you don't know who they are meeting. You don't know who they are mixing with. But then again, you have to start," Chhetri added.
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