The spread of Coronavirus or COVID-19 and the consequent pandemic in early 2020 have brought about unprecedented changes in all spheres of global life. The entire 2020 has been a victim of this new biological threat to human civilization, taking a heavy toll of life in different parts of the world. 1 COVID-19 has created a new sense of (in)security with social distancing, physical isolation, quarantine and lockdown becoming buzzwords to combat this novel variety of bioterrorism, overshadowing the threat of armed terrorism that dominated many parts of the world in the last three decades. As the world has gone through a major transformation in the `COVID Regime`, 2 sport in general and soccer as the most popular mass spectator sport, in particular, has been no exception to this trend. COVID-19 has posed serious challenges to the sports/soccer world and the responses of various stakeholders from the domain of sport/soccer have been diverse and intriguing across the globe. Confronting, negotiating and overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic invited and inspired novel responses and strong improvisations from soccer bodies to players, from referees to spectators, and from journalists to sponsors. Although there was a complete stoppage of soccer initially almost everywhere across the world in March-April 2020 creating unprecedented confusion about the future of the game with all major leagues being stopped, Euro 2020 postponed and the Summer Olympics deferred, the gradual resumption of games and tournaments from May 2020 onwards began to represent the early impressions and initial responses to the pandemic.
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