And still they play on. Football around the world has long since hung up its dusty boots in its attempts to starve the coronavirus yet one league remains standing, stubbornly kicking balls through the rising death toll.
The Belarus Premier League, or the Vysheyshaya Liga to give it its official title, remains the only competition in Europe — and fourth in the world alongside Nicaragua, Burundi, and Tajikistan — not to have shut its doors in the face of the pandemic.
‘Frankly not comprehendible,’ is how FIFPro, the world players’ union, secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann described their refusal to put it on hold.