Exclusive: Paul Robinson delivers verdict on fake fan noise in closed doors games at Elland Road
We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Leeds United…
Paul Robinson has said that he thinks piping fan noises into games played behind closed doors could be more off-putting than beneficial for Leeds.
It’s a serious idea that was mooted in a Premier League meeting last week, as clubs looked to minimise the loss of home advantage if the 19/20 season re-started without fans.
Robinson said that just playing games would be great for Leeds now – fans or no fans.
Talking exclusively to MOT Leeds News Robinson said, “From a Leeds point of view I think they’ll just be glad to get the season re-started, no-matter how that happened even if that’s behind closed doors.
“Anything but abandoning the season is what Leeds want. If that was to happen it would be a huge blow.
“Leeds generally have a big advantage playing at home because of their fans so if they can recreate that at Elland Road it would be good but it would certainly be strange.
“I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. Playing behind closed doors is going to be very strange, very surreal, in itself… whether it will actually feel real when they’re playing as they’re looking at all those empty seats.
“Piping in noise on top of that might be actually more off-putting for players than it would be beneficial.”
You could never recreate the Elland Road fans, who hang on every ball that’s played.
However, it will be very odd to watch a game with no background noise whatsoever.
It would be almost impossible to recreate the ebb-and-flow of fans’ reactions to the game, but we can see some low background noise, with some of the popular songs actually working really well.
If the players think it would be more off-putting than beneficial, the noises could just be piped into the TV coverage.
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