The UK government announced the allowance of spectators from December 2nd.
Crowds will return to English sports next week after months of spectator-less matches, the UK government announced today. The allowance of spectators at football matches will come in accordance with the end of national lockdown.
There are of course rules regarding attendees, however. There will be an attendance caps in accordance with areas of different risk. Enforcement of social distancing will also apply. The maximum amount of spectators allowed in outdoor events will be capped at 4,000 in Tier 1 areas or at 50% depending at the capacity of the stadium. 2,000 spectators will be allowed into stadiums within Tier 2 areas. There will be a total of 1,000 attendees allowed into indoor events in Tier 1 and 2 areas. Crowds are to be completed banned in Tier 3 areas.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the aforementioned tier system today. The areas within each tier are yet to be decided. The respective tiers will be announced later this week, likely on Thursday.
The news of returning spectators comes after increased frustration from sports clubs. Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy expressed his concern over the absence of fans just before the announcement from the UK prime minister. “Our estimate for the current financial year of the potential loss of revenue, should the stadium remain closed to fans, is in excess of £150m. Clearly this would be an irrecoverable loss of income.”, Levy asserted.
This comes after Tottenham reported a loss of £63.9 million for the year ended June 30th.
There have been concerns from some members of the public regarding the safety of these new rules, particularly coming up to the Christmas period. Others have welcomed the return of spectators with severally clubs struggling financially throughout the last few months, especially “smaller” clubs.
The UK government have also announced the return of grassroots sports, having been suspended since November 5th.
