The contribution that fans make to the matchday experience and atmosphere created in the stadium cannot be replicated at home. Whilst football will hopefully resume in mid-June, they will be played without fans on the terraces. Yet Wigan FC will endeavour to bring live football direct into your homes once it returns, via Latics TV. Meanwhile, all English Football League games are broadcast either through the League’s broadcast partners, iFollow or equivalent Club streaming services. If you cannot get to a game, here are three ways to entertain yourself while staying at home.

Esports: competitive gaming

Esports has grown rapidly in recent years, with a base of an estimated 400 million fans worldwide. Esports have professional teams playing competitively, able to earn their living this way, in the same way that traditional athletes do.

Esports include traditional sports like soccer. Whilst nothing can take away from the matchday experience or the physical enjoyment of playing the game, esports offer great entertainment while staying at home. Wigan FC’s TV channel, Latvics TV, hosts live games and commentary, and during the pandemic have been regularly uploading esports to entertain fans.

Across esports, there are opportunities to take part in the game yourself and work your way up the rankings, with the chance to play when you want rather than having scheduled matches.

Sports betting

Sports betting can add an extra layer of excitement to your viewing of matches that are opening up again around the world, beginning in South Korea, then Germany and most others due back in June.

Sports betting sites also offer online bingo, available across all devices and in multiple versions. Online bingo has a strong social element, encouraging players to interact with a community of players and its popularity means new bingo sites are being launched all the time. You can play free to learn how the games work before placing any money in the hope of a payout or jackpot.

Become a football referee

As soccer aims to resume the season, you may wonder if there will be enough officials for the huge volume of games being played each day.  You can play your part by training to become a registered referee in your area. This is a great idea if you are looking for a source of income, which many are due to the downturn in the economy. Referees will work locally at colleges and schools, becoming an integral part of those communities.

Whilst training to be a referee has a large practical element, you can kickstart your new career by seeing what is expected of you online. Football Association Wales offers a new online course that is the first step of training, whether you aspire to officiate a World Cup Final or help out your local youth or adult leagues. Easy to navigate and schedule around other commitments, you can see whether the full referees kit with whistle, flags and red and yellow cards is worth your investment.

Follow games online

While global soccer paused in much of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wigan FC did not stop connecting with its fans and community, offering new online content on a regular basis.  Whilst games have been suspended, there are soccer streaming sites that have uploaded free games for you to follow, not just games from the last decade, but games where you will not know the result, but offer great skill and entertainment.

There are several soccer streaming sites, with some streaming matches for free from all over the world. You can record now and watch later, so you can watch at a time that suits you. If you choose a premium membership, you can get additional options such as rewind, HD quality games and games free of adverts.

You can stream live matches and be kept up-to-date on other soccer news on streaming sites offering a wide range of sports, with a lot of information for fans in one place. One thing to be aware of is there may be geographical restrictions to some games due to sponsorship deals with particular leagues.