It looks unlikely now that the government plans to let any clubs have fans in until at least March. This doesn’t seem in any way logical as it seems much safer for fans to be distanced and basically outside watching sport rather than being indoors in bars, restaurants, hairdressers, beauty salons or even going on a flight for however many hours without any distancing!

This will quite clearly have a huge effect on many clubs at all levels as we are likely to see Super League have no fans for the rest of the season and all leagues looking likely to have to start late or behind closed doors.

I have set up a petition on the UK Parliament Petitions website (link below) to try to get sports clubs to be allowed to open with reduced capacities. It seems unfair that sports clubs are being treated differently to other businesses and it is getting to the point where it could lead to many clubs in many sports going out of business with no prospect of any match day revenue for at least another six months.

Please sign and share the petition as widely as you can and hopefully there may be a rethink!

rlhttps://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/328403rl

Let's see what happens in the new year, there is no rush to get fans back in stadiums in 2020. It may work in other countries, but maybe in March/April next year spectators may be allowed back in reduced numbers.

When i read rlTHISrl by Andy Last, I just happen to agree with him.

Just to run this one past you.

If your ground has 10 pubs in the locality, which can each take 50 fans = 500 fans, where on earth are the rest going to go for a beer and do they each run on first come first served or a booking system ?
Also, even in a modern ground like the one at Leigh, how the hell does everyone remain socially distant ?
Even if they sell say 1/3 of seats and everyone get's there, with staggered arrivals etc, what happens with the constant trips to the bar / toilet
Maybe you close the bar and issue all fans with incontinence pants

I'm not an alcoholic but, when you watch Trinity, you DO need a drink, it would be immoral to force people to watch whilst sober

I’m by no means advocating people taking risks, more to give people the choice to go to games if they wish to and can do so safely. I very much doubt having 10%, 20% or even 30% capacity will be any more dangerous than being stuck on a plane for a few hours with maybe 8 other people within 2 meters of you. And how many thousands of people have flown out on holiday since flights restarted? Non league football clubs at the lower levels have been allowed several hundred fans in despite their grounds being much harder to manage and enforce social distancing and that’s worked well enough so I don’t see why large stadiums with better facilities, more space, CCTV, online ticket sales with known and accurate contact details can’t start to reopen. Not everyone would choose to go, in the same way that many haven’t been to non essential shops, pubs, restaurants, public transport, hair dressers, beauty salons and so on. Pretty much every other industry has reopened and nobody has really batted an eyelid!

Thank you to everyone who has signed the petition as well, I appreciate this isn’t for everyone but I do feel there are a lot of people out there who this matters to!