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.

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Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Egyptian football association. He must now undergo mandatory quarantine, despite not displaying any symptoms.

Salah will undergo additional testing to further assess his condition. If tests reveal a negative result, he will not have to quarantine in the UK and will be available for selection against Leicester. He will, however, miss Egypt’s upcoming games against Togo in AFCON qualifying.

The forward was filmed enjoying himself at his brother’s wedding prior to the positive test.

Salah’s test comes as one of the many positive tests during international break amongst different squads.

Additional Covid-19 outbreaks

The FAI confirmed today that Alan Browne has tested positive. This comes after the midfielder played a full 90 minutes against England yesterday – where he had the virus according to reports. There has been no confirmation of additional positive tests between the two camps since the match, though. Alan Browne is Ireland’s second Covid-19 related absence after Callum Robinson also tested positive earlier in the week.

The Football Association of Ireland can confirm Ireland midfielder Alan Browne has tested positive for COVID-19

There are no close contacts of the player and the rest of the staff & squad tested negative ahead of Sunday’s UEFA Nations League against Wales in Cardiff#COYBIG pic.twitter.com/Llpde9apHo

— FAIreland (@FAIreland) NOVEMBER 13, 2020

There has also been virus outbreaks within the Denmark and Brazil camps. Denmark missed no less than 20 of their players in a friendly against Sweden – who were also missing players due to the virus – on Wednesday. Gabriel Menino of Brazil also tested positive having trained with the Brazilian squad. Several Premier League players trained with Menino including Roberto Firmino, Alisson Becker and Alex Telles.

Norway and Israel cancelled their friendly on Tuesday, also. Israel striker Munas Dabbur contracted the virus leading to the cancellation.

This is not the first time there has been an excess of cases among players during international breaks, either. During last month’s international break there was also a series of positive test results. Shamrock Rovers midfielder Jack Byrne tested positive for the virus while on Ireland duty. The Italy u21s also had an outbreak in their camp, leading them to play a weakened side against the Ireland u21s.

Another week of football is to be played with further cases likely. It’s clear that changes must be made regarding the safety of international football during these times.

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BBC Sport report that over 1,000 players were tested in the third round of testing which then resulted in four positive tests coming back. The Premier League issued a statement confirmed the news that contact training will resume. They said, “Phase two of ‘Project Restart’ will see players “train as a group and engage in tackling while minimising unnecessary close contact”.

As of now 2,752 tests have been conducted with just the 12 positive tests. However, Premier League will players and staff will still have to be tested twice a week for the virus. Furthermore, there will also be an increase in capacity of testing per club from 50 up to 60 tests. Clubs started non contact training last week for the first time since March 13th. BBC say that clubs will meet on Thursday to discuss the use of neutral stadiums for games. It will also discuss on what will happen if the season is ended and voting on rebates for broadcasters.

This is a good step as it is a step closer to getting football back properly. The next stage after the contact stage will allow clubs to have 11v11 games and close contact training. However, the one question I would have to raise is, what happen when a player tests positive, does that mean the whole team have to quarantine, considering that player may have and will likely have been around team mates. However, may be the clubs have used GPS to track this in some way given the way technology is these days.

It is likely another few weeks away from full football and we may not see the Premier League finish. However, this is a step in the right direction.

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BBC Report that Cliff Baty said they are due to hand back around £20 million in regards to television revenue, that’s even if the season restarts. The remaining £8 million comes from final three weeks of March when United had three games cancelled due to the pandemic. Batty speaking in a conference call said that television broadcasters will receive the £20 million back due to changes in dates and times of games. Retail sales have also been impacted, this including jerseys and souvenirs for example. He said sales have been “impacted” due to the Old Trafford shop been shut.

The clubs executive vice chairman did state the worst has yet to come for the club stating that the current quarter which runs to the end of June will be where the major burden will occur. He said, “Our third-quarter results reflect a partial impact that the pandemic has had on the club but the greater impact will be in the current quarter and likely beyond,”. Mr Woodward acknowledged that the virus will not go away overnight and stated, “These are unprecedented times and we must recognise that this crisis will not disappear overnight”.  He said it is one of most “extraordinary and testing time of clubs 142 year history”.

United haven’t played a game in 10 weeks since the Europa League with Austrian side Lask Linz. A game Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men won 5-0 in the round of 16.

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RTE Sport report the tests were carried out on Sunday and Monday. Tests will also be carried out twice as agreed on by the clubs. It’s reported that around 40 tests will conducted in every club at each training session. The Premier league issued a statement confirming that six players tested positive for Covid 19. It said,  “The Premier League can today confirm that on Sunday 17 May and Monday 18 May, 748 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, six have tested positive from three clubs”.

The statement said that players and staff will of those six cases will now have to self isolate for one week. “Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days” the statement read. Burnley have revealed that a member of their backroom staff has been diagnosed with the virus. They said that Ian Woan is asymptomatic and will enter the self isolation period of 7 days.

Training resumed this week in small groups and was of course non contact owing to the protocols which were set out. Phase one of training will see groups of around 5 allowed train, while practicing strict social distancing procedures. Sessions are also not allowed be no longer than 75 minutes. Yesterday I reported that the Premier League agreed on the protocols set out by Project Restart which allowed clubs to train groups of five. RTE Sport report that another Premier league meeting is due to be held on March 26th to discuss contact training.

There were suggestions that the league may resume in Mid June. However with the current cases now this is likely to have pushed the date back a bit further than that.

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In the statement they added: “Any non-sports public activity with members of the first team will be cancelled until further notice, including the coach’s press conference prior to the La Liga match, as well as all the pre and post-match appearances scheduled for Saturday’s game at Mestalla.”

The club has also advised supporters and employees, who travelled to Italy for their Champions League game at Atalanta on 19 February, on a range of hygiene measures.

The virus is going to lead to huge disruption and we have done a list of Irish sporting events affected by Covid-19

OFFICIAL STATEMENT https://t.co/rEKO232o13 pic.twitter.com/WCULo3rW3h

— Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) February 28, 2020

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Chief Executive of the IRFU Philip Browne confirmed the news on Wednesday afternoon. He stated the IRFU were acting on government advice. He said the organisation was perfectly happy to comply with it’s recommendations. The decision to postpone the game comes on the back of a meeting with Simon Harris. He stated it was the “right decision” in the interest of public health. Harris said the meeting was excellent. However he expressed some supporters will be disappointed that the game has been called off.

The IRFU released a statement confirming the news following a meeting with Simon Harris. The meeting was to request a formal instruction of the staging of Ireland v Italy games on the weekend of 6/8th of March.  The statement continued, “At the outset we made it clear that the IRFU was supportive of the Governments’ need to protect public health in relation to the Coronavirus”. The IRFU said they were advised, formally, that The National Public Health Emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed. This of course in the interests of Public Health.

The game is likely to be rescheduled as to when is still has to be decided. The statement said, “We will immediately begin to work with our Six Nations partners to look at the possibility of rescheduling the matches”. They said an update will be issued on this.

Personally, it is the right decision as public health is paramount. England play Wales that same weekend, while France meet Scotland at Murrayfield. There is several cases in France at present with some deaths. Whether this game will be postponed or not is another question but I suspect it will.

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