Hungary, UEFA taking big risk having fans at Super Cup final says health expert
RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT
VIDEO SHOWS: GENERAL VIEWS OF BUDAPEST AND THE PUSKAS ARENA, INTERVIEW WITH EPIDEMIOLOGIST, ANDRAS CSILEK, FILE FOOTAGE OF HOSPITAL STAFF TREATING A COVID-19 PATIENT, RECENT FOOTAGE OF HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN VISITING HOSPITAL, FILE FOOTAGE OF ORBAN PLAYING SOCCER, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN'S CHIEF OF STAFF, GERGELY GULYAS SPEAKING ON HUNGARIAN TV CHANNEL, ATV, SOUNDBITE FROM OPPOSITION SOCIALIST PARTY MP, ILDIKO BORBELY, SOUNDBITES FROM TWO LOCAL RESIDENTS, DRONE FOOTAGE OF THE PUSKAS ARENA
SHOWS:
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 22, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
1. TOP VIEW OF DANUBE, CHAIN BRIDGE AND PARLIAMENT
2. TOP VIEW OF CITY AND DANUBE
3. TOP VIEW OF PUSKAS ARENA
4. EXTERIOR OF PUSKAS ARENA
5. FLAGS OF SUPER CUP MATCH FLYING
6. MAIN ENTRANCE OF ARENA
7. SIGNS FOR TEMPERATURE CHECKS
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 21, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
8. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) EPIDEMIOLOGIST, ANDRAS CSILEK, SAYING:
"Practically this match comes at the worst time, well of course, it could have been even worse. It would have had the same terrible effect in the first two to four weeks (of the pandemic), and the plausible effects one can now expect are equally terrible. There were a month and a half during the summer which was a kind of state of grace when it would have been less risky, but obviously it is easy to say now. I think that if we adhere to the notion that it is not enough to be good but also to appear good then a 20,000 mass event at a football match cannot fit into that now."
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (FILE - AUGUST 27, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
9. VARIOUS OF HOSPITAL STAFF PREPARING BLOOD TEST
10. PUTTING ON OXYGEN ON PATIENT
11. HOSPITAL STAFF TENDING PATIENT
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 21, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
12. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) EPIDEMIOLOGIST, ANDRAS CSILEK, SAYING:
"If the Hungarian health care leadership say together with the Hungarian government and UEFA that this can be done then obviously it can be done. But nobody knows where this leads, but if it is an experiment, that is wrong. You don't experiment with people."
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (RECENT - 2020) (PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN FACEBOOK - ACCESS ALL)
13. VARIOUS OF PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN VISITING HOSPITAL WHERE COVID PATIENTS ARE TREATED
14. ORBAN SPEAKING WITH DOCTOR ON DUTY ASKING IF THERE ARE ENOUGH RESPIRATORS
15. EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL
16. ORBAN LEAVING IN VAN
17. ORBAN GETTING OUT OF VAN
18. VARIOUS OF ORBAN WALKING WITH PRESS ASSISTANT / SAYING THERE ARE ENOUGH RESPIRATORS AND CAN TREAT EVERYONE
SZEKESFEHERVAR, HUNGARY (FILE - 2010) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
19. ORBAN KICKING BALL DURING SOCCER MATCH
20. MATCH IN PROGRESS
21. ORBAN PLAYING
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 21, 2020) (ATV - NO USE HUNGARY)
22. HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN'S CHIEF OF STAFF, GERGELY GULYAS SPEAKING IN ATV STUDIO
23. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN'S CHIEF OF STAFF, GERGELY GULYAS, SAYING:
"Super Cup match measures will be so strict that it will be safer to attend than almost any other social gathering."
24. GULYAS SPEAKING IN STUDIO
25. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN'S CHIEF OF STAFF, GERGELY GULYAS, SAYING:
"If they (UEFA) order mask wearing then it could be a solution too. I would like to note that since the end of February, early March, we have been very careful that professional questions should not be decided by politicians."
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 22, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
26. BILLBOARD OF SUPER CUP MATCH
27. POSTER NEAR ARENA
28. POSTER OF MATCH
29. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) OPPOSITION SOCIALIST PARTY MP, ILDIKO BORBELY, SAYING:
"This experiment is unacceptable for us. We can call it a human experiment in which 14,000 of our fellow citizens are used as experimental rabbits to find out how the coronavirus spreads at a mass event. We are protesting against that the population of Budapest is exposed to such danger."
30. EXTERIOR OF ARENA
31. SIGN OF UEFA SUPER CUP
32. PEOPLE WALKING AT SQUARE BY RAILWAY STATION
33. PEOPLE WALKING
34. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) LOCAL RESIDENT, JULIA, RESPONDING WHEN ASKED IF SHE THINK WHETHER FANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO WATCH THE SUPER CUP, SAYING:
"No, no, absolutely not"
REPORTER (OFF CAMERA), ASKING: "Why not?
"There is a state of epidemic. That is it."
35. PEOPLE WALKING
36. (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) LOCAL RESIDENT, ZOLTAN, RESPONDING WHEN ASKED IF SHE THINK WHETHER FANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO WATCH THE SUPER CUP, SAYING:
"I don't think it is a good idea as it poses a threat of infection with so many people together. So I think it should not happen."
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (RECENT, 2020) (ODPICTURES ART STUDIO HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL) (MUTE)
37. VARIOUS OF DRONE VIDEO OF PUSKAS ARENA
STORY: Organisers run a huge risk by allowing 20,000 fans to attend a major soccer match, Thursday's (September 24) UEFA Super Cup final in Budapest, for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak, a leading Hungarian epidemiologist has told Reuters.
European soccer's governing body UEFA normally kicks off the season with the Super Cup match between the Champions League and Europa League winners and said it would see how the game with spectators works in Hungary's capital..
The new Puskas Arena, a recently completed pet project of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an avid soccer fan, will be up to one-third full for the showdown between European champions Bayern Munich and Europa League title holders Sevilla, and UEFA has said all safety precautions would be observed.
However, Andras Csilek, who advises the Hungarian Medical Chamber, said in an interview with Reuters that the game's timing "could not be worse" as the pandemic's second wave grows around Europe, topping 600 new cases a day in Hungary.
"It would have had the same terrible effect in the first two to four weeks (of the pandemic), and the plausible effects one can now expect are equally terrible," Csilek said. "Just think of the football games we know sparked spring madness in Italy."
Experts have traced a surge in Italy's COVID-19 infections to February soccer matches and the Venice Carnival, he added.
Hungary's government is trying to "keep the country going" to avoid an economic disaster while containing the virus, the country's nationalist leader Orban has said.
"The Super Cup match measures will be so strict that it will be safer to attend than almost any other social gathering," Orban's chief of staff Gergely Gulyas told broadcaster ATV on Monday (September 21).
European countries, including Germany, have placed Hungary on a watch list as coronavirus cases rise, and Bavarian premier Markus Soeder has warned fans to stay away from Budapest.
"Nobody knows where this leads, but if it is an experiment, that is wrong," Csilek said. "You don't experiment with people."
(Production: Krisztina Fenyo)
