Government Exploring Potential Fans Return For December

Since March, fans have been banned from attending Premier League matches due to measures imposed to protect against Coronavirus, however we understand the government is currently exploring the potential for fans to return to sports venues in some parts of England as early as next month!

According to sources, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has privately indicated to MP’s that re-opening the turnstiles as soon as possible was "a personal priority".

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working on allowing fans into stadia in areas where rates of infections are deemed sufficiently low, possibly, before Christmas.

Prior to this, sports organisations had been lead to understand that stadia would not see a return of fans to the terraces until April, 2021, at the earliest.

On Tuesday, the government said it had held "constructive" talks with football leaders on the return of fans, along with issues such as governance reforms, financial sustainability, and greater diversity.

The outcome of these talks, a 90-minute 'virtual future of football' summit, with Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, seems to indicate a willingness on the part of Government to work together with football leaders to make progress on important issues for the game's long-term future by the statement that ‘discussions are apparently to continue as we start our fan-led review of governance’.

Any proposals to link access to sports grounds with the tier-system that was in place before the second national lockdown came into force earlier this month, but are yet to be finalised or approved by the Cabinet Office.

Officials, however, are known to be increasingly keen to come up with a plan that would enable a phased return of fans in Tier One and possibly Tier Two areas of the country, if the lockdown is lifted, as is hoped, in early December. The news of a potential 90% successful vaccine being rolled out has further enhanced the positivity that there may be some light appearing at the end of the tunnel for 2020.

In a devastating blow to cash-strapped sports bodies, plans for a partial return of spectators from 1 October were scrapped amid the rise in coronavirus cases. This was in spite of sports insisting that pilot events with socially-distanced crowds have been successfully achieved, turnstiles remain firmly closed.

There is continuing controversy over the the decision to permit some Arts venues, such as O2 and Royal Albert Hall to host audiences of up to 5,000 people, obviously leading to accusations of inconsistency and favouritism from the sports industry.

During last week’s parliamentary debate on the issue, the government refused to say when it expects spectators to be allowed back inside sports venues in England, whilst faced by a huge lobby of almost 200,000 people who have signed petitions calling for fans to be able to return.

There are genuine fears among many that opening stadia could lead to a greater risk of transmission and the Sports Minister, Nigel Huddleston, said last week, “You times that by multiple levels, leagues and sports, and all of a sudden we've got a whole scale far beyond what is acceptable at this moment in time."

However, if, as many believe, there now appears to be a shift in approach, this would give a serious boost to stadiums and sport.