Tajikistan’s season starts despite fears
Tajikistan's domestic football season kicked off Saturday, as leagues around the world remained suspended to support the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The Super Cup game heralding the start of the football season took place nowadays, and saw perennial domestic champions FC Istiklol result from behind to beat FC Khujand 2-1 in the administrative centre Dushanbe.
Tajikistan, an unhealthy Central Asian state of 9 million people, has yet to declare an individual infection from COVID-19.
Strongman leader Emomali Rakhmon was seen posing with a large number of young women clad in traditional garb at the same time when leaders around the world were advocating social distancing.
Belarus, another ex-Soviet country, remains the outlier in Europe, and its league has attracted unprecedented international attention because it started with fans attending games last month.
The game itself threatened to come back an upset before Istiklol, a club founded by Rakhmon's son Rustam Emomali, the existing mayor of the capital Dushanbe, converted their dominance into goals and overturned an early on Khujand lead.
It ended in hugs and handshakes at all times as FC Istiklol players collected their winners' medals and lifted the Super Cup trophy in an otherwise empty stadium.
Tajikistan is one of just two former Soviet countries that contain not reported an individual case of the coronavirus.
The other, reclusive Turkmenistan, has recently announced the suspension of its domestic league.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov made his first reference to the coronavirus in comments reported Saturday by state media.
