Latest abandonment of lockdown easing - will we start the season behind closed doors?
With infections picking up again, I would imagine that it is a distinct possibility that no fans will be allowed in for the start of the season.
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With infections picking up again, I would imagine that it is a distinct possibility that no fans will be allowed in for the start of the season.
Comments
I thought the intention was for matches to be played behind closed doors (or BCD as they say in the trade) until October.
I've given up and will be sailing until October!
Just so many mixed messages coming in from politicians & scientists. None of them can agree amongst themselves. I have literally given up on trying to forecast anything other than the sun rising in the mornings.
With @Jonny_King on his pedalo I assume!
Lock down is over people. They will let people in and then if there is a spike in barnsley they will say football fans are to blame.
Welcome to the contrarian world run by the ex-RCP faction currently running the Tory Party
It was always going to start behind closed doors.
The best we could hope for was reduced capacity in October.
I must admit i was hopeful itd pretty quickly ramp up from there though.
The latest restrictions seem a frustrating step back.
I think limited capacity will still be permitted from Oct given that it is outdoors.
But the government have been pretty clear that relaxations of the rules could be postponed or reversed as the situation changes. That is what has happened with casinos and bowling alleys, so that could also happen with sports stadia.
There will certainly need to be contingency plans in place in the event that spectators aren’t permitted until, say, 2021.
Based on what was said yesterday I think it is likely that meeting with other people in your own house will be curtailed.
It's almost impossible to predict what the govt will do seeing their response so far hasn't followed any logical reasoning.
The current plan is to only be allowed to see people you don't live with if they are selling you something, so maybe RC should invest in American style vendors to walk up the stands selling hog dogs again.
Seeing that the epidemiologists will want to shut everything down to stop the transmission of the virus, and politicians want to get back to business as usual yesterday, it'd be a surprise if there weren't contradictions in what the two groups are saying. Of course both extremes will lead to one catastrophe or another, finding a balance between the two will be difficult, especially when the stakes are so high.
Back to my OP, I clearly have been a bit out of the loop about the provisional October date for limited crowds returning to the football. The latest setbacks may have pushed it back a bit further, though I wouldn't rule out Boris Johnson cynically allowing crowds back in early as part of a diversionary tactic to distract from yet another scandal.
Yes, Boris has been very vocal at how football can have a major morale boosting effect on the nation.
He'll certainly want it back on to as normal extent as possible to deflect.
Boris's decisions change every day just like the weather.
Hopefully it will make a return in October more likely, as the latest restrictions have an affect. There were fans in attendance at a game in Northern Ireland last night.
Very few. Total of 500 in stadium twice the size of Adams Park with far greater numbers of gates for entry and exit (I live over here and go to the NI matches there so know the stadium quite well)
Also the general infection rate in NI is much much lower than in England, about 5 per 100,000 and stable compared with the 60+ and rising in England.
Might favour us playing in front of no crowds in some large away grounds.
There was a comment in one of the papers today, saying how a lot of players had fed back that they actually relax more as some grounds are really toxic!
Exactly, and not forgetting the officials, who might be more prepared to award Wycombe a penalty late in injury time than they otherwise might in a packed stadium of baying numbskulls at Millwall.
Although in fairness, our drone army can be fairly rabid when they get going, and surely must intimidate even the hardiest opposition...