Her Majesty’s Government officials are pleased as Punch with the success of football’s first pilot for the return of spectators and continue to work towards welcoming socially-distanced crowds back inside grounds from the start of October, after Brighton hosted a friendly against Chelsea with 2,500 fans in attendance at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
The event was closely observed by who will liaise this week with experts from the Sports Grounds Safety Authority about scaling up the pilot schemes.
Plans are already reportedly in place to open stadiums to restricted audiences across various sports throughout Septemberr with selected events including a Premiership rugby fixture between Harlequins and Bath, cricket matches in the Bob Willis Trophy and T20 Blast, a basketball friendly at Newcastle, speedway at Ipswich and horseracing at Doncaster, Warwick and Newmarket.
For football-starved fans, West Ham have a capacity of 1,000 fans for the Women’s Super League fixture against Arsenal, at Dagenham and Redbridge’s Victoria Road, on September 12. The Football Association hope to invite a crowd of about 10,000 into Wembley Stadium for the Trophy and Vase finals on September 20.
Much could still depend on the rates of infection in wider society, with schools set to return from next week, but if all goes smoothly the Government would like to give the green light to some fans inside the grounds from October.
There is an international break after the Premier League fixtures on October 3 when England have a friendly against Wales, already been mooted as the first for the Three Lions in front of fans since last November.