No cheering, no movement, and most of them wear the wrong colors. They're not even real. Dinamo Brest, the defending champion of the Belarusian football league, has started filling the stands of its stadium with mannequins dressed in jerseys from different clubs and with the faces of "virtual fans" who bought tickets online.

Belarus is the only European country that continues to hold professional sporting events with spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the number of fans in the stands has been decreasing as the population considers attending stadiums too risky.

Fan boycotts have been announced for 10 of the 16 teams in the top division. This includes Dinamo Brest and BATE Borisov, a team that usually participates in the Champions League.

While real fans move away, mannequins arrive. For Wednesday's match in the Belarusian Cup semi-finals against Shakhtyor Soligorsk, at least 30 mannequins were placed in the stands, each with a photograph of a fan's face.

They wore a variety of team jerseys, including the purple one that Real Madrid used as an away kit in the 2016-17 season and the burgundy and blue uniform worn by the Premier League's Aston Villa in the 1990s. Other jerseys were placed in nearby seats.

With little sporting activity elsewhere in the world, some foreign fans have started following matches in the Belarusian league. Dinamo's Secretary General, Vladimir Machulsky, wants them to feel at home.

"It's our creative idea. In this way, a virtual viewer watching the match on television can see themselves in the stands," Machulsky explained to The Associated Press.

"We're not trying to imitate a full stadium. We know that fans refuse to come to the games. So we've decided to take a creative approach to the situation."

"Virtual tickets" seem to be a profitable resource for Dinamo Brest. They are on sale for Sunday's league match for 67 Belarusian rubles ($26.90), five times more expensive than the most expensive normal ticket sold online. Tickets for some matches cost as little as 1.75 rubles ($0.70).

The club reported that 12 "virtual" tickets were sold on Wednesday for the first leg of the Cup semi-finals, which Dinamo Brest won 2-0. Buyers come from six countries, including the United States and Canada. (D)