The future of football? Danish club unveil first-ever 'Virtual Grandstand' to allow fans to attend games via Zoom

After two months without football, Danish Superliga team AGF Aarhus are now offering virtual tickets to their upcoming game against rivals Randers FC, meaning watching fans will appear on giant screens inside the stadium.

As if the world of sport hadn’t got surreal enough in these unusual times what with spectators being replaced by cardboard cut-outs and sex dolls, fans of one team in Denmark are now able to grab free tickets for their games - and cheer them on inside the ground via online chat platform Zoom.

AGF Aarhus of the Danish Superliga have announced they are erecting giant screens inside 22 sections of their Ceres Park stadium, on which the players will be able to see the faces of watching fans cheering them on from the comfort of their own homes.

The fans will also be able to pick sections when choosing tickets for the upcoming game against their local rivals Randers FC on May 28 that will allow them to ‘sit’ alongside their friends in the Superliga’s first game back since lockdown due to the coronavirus. So while they may not be able to actually go to the stadium, they will be able to ‘gather’ as the match begins. 

The screens and technology involved will take 23 people to operate and the sections will be monitored to ensure home, away and neutral fans aren’t located on the same virtual screen. Although you would imagine the prospect of any fights breaking out must be fairly low.

AGF’s CEO Jacob Nielsen certainly seems excited about the project, saying: “It will be the first tournament match in a long time. We are celebrating that with a historic digital initiative, and we are proud to be the first club in the world to use it.

"Now it seems that we have to do without spectators for a while, so maybe we can inspire a similar initiative at other clubs that can also benefit from it in the coming time.”