La Liga is set to return with a blockbuster 'Gran Derbi (Great Derby)' between Sevilla and Real Betis at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium in Seville on Thursday.
This will mark a great day for football fans in the country that has seen the sport suspended since March due to coronavirus pandemic.
But Sevilla President Jose Castro is of the opinion that football will bring joy and respite to the country which has suffered a lot despite fans not being able to enjoy the action from close quarters.
"The impact without a doubt can be seen in the entire city. This derby is going to be different because there won't be any public. Normally we would have liked to play the derby with fans," Castro told reporters on Zoom when IANS quizzed him about the prospect of hosting such a huge fixture behind closed-doors.
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"What we have done is we have asked the fans to not go outside to the stadium and only watch it at home. So what is important is to start and go ahead with matches.
"After tomorrow, we hope that football really leaves its mark. And I think it is going to help COVID lose its importance and help football gain importance," he added.
Sevilla currently stand third in the LaLiga, behind heavyweights Barcelona and Real Madrid. Castro expressed his happiness over their current position in the table and stated that their main aim remains automatic Champions League qualifications for next season.
"At the moment we are ranked third and it is very important. We are absolutely delighted with that. If we end the season behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, we would be very happy," he said.
"It is a very competitive league and with 11 game-days to go, we will fight with everything we got to maintain this position. But third or fourth position would be fantastic."
Sevilla, over the years, have been known to do shrewd business in the transfer market. But according to Castro, other clubs could also take a similar path in the near future as he believes that big-money signings are about to become very rare in the post-COVID era.
"I think it will be a shorter market this year and I think there will be less number of expensive players because the pandemic has affected everyone," Castro said.
"Also, I think everything will have to be done very quickly as this has been a very unusual year and there will be less time (between the end of this season and beginning of next).
"I think this situation will help in promoting academy players in the first team," he added.
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