UEFA Super Cup: will safety measures make the Puskás Arena the safest spot in the country?

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has called on the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ) to order the UEFA Super Cup match scheduled for Thursday to be played to an empty stadium.

The match between Bayern Munich and Sevilla in Budapest’s Puskás Arena will be the first UEFA match to be played in front of spectators since the novel coronavirus outbreak in March.

Erzsébet Gy. Németh, a deputy mayor of Budapest, called

the match a “human experiment courtesy of [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán”,

who, she insisted, refused to put the event behind closed doors “in service of his hobby”.

The municipality will increase the capacity of public transport in the area “to breaking point” in order to protect the health of spectators, she said. The public should wear masks and keep distance from each other at bus stops, she added.

According to current plans, 20,000 people, a third of the arena’s capacity, will be allowed to attend. Sevilla has announced it will use only 500 of the 2,500 tickets allocated to the team.

In response, MLSZ said

stringent safety measures will make the Puskás Arena “the safest spot in the country, possibly in all Europe, during the match”.