Following my post a few weeks ago about the Turkmenistan soccer league restarting its season despite the COVID-19 pandemic I decided to do an update on how the league’s restart went last week. I found a Boston Globe article that covered how many leagues around the world are currently being affected by the virus.
Per the article the first game the league played since its March 24th suspension came on April 19th. It was a game between Altyn Asyr and Kopetdag in a 20,000-capacity stadium Ashgabat, the capital of the country. The piece says that around 500 people attended the match and that the “the crowd size was broadly in line with typical domestic league games in Turkmenistan.” Attendance to the match was free. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.
If you recall from the earlier post, Turkmenistan is located right next door to Iran, one of the most infected nations in the Middle East.