Premier League: Clubs ready to have their fans back in the Stadium

Manchester United, a few days ago announced that they are ready to host 23,500 fans post-pandemic.

Hopefully, the worst of COVID-19 and its destruction of normally is behind us now. We are well aware we are far from safe and nowhere near to being out of the woods. But all we can do now is, adapt, run trials, hope for no errors, and keep trying to overcome this problem that has plagued the world.

The most refreshing bit post-pandemic was seeing a bit of normalcy during 90 minutes of football where some teams across Europe had a few thousand fans allowed back into their stadiums. Out with the cardboard cutouts and in with the real deal spectators.

Premier League situation at the moment

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Manchester United is one of few clubs that have announced they are ready to “safely” host 23,500 fans with strict protocols in place. The Old Trafford club made it clear that they have been working on this for a couple of months and are now well prepared for the task they face to have the supporters supporting their beloved Manchester live once again.

"Manchester United say Old Trafford is ready to safely hold around 23,500 fans for matches in accordance with social distancing guidelines as soon as the UK government gives the green light for stadiums to reopen.Plans for stadiums to be reopened in October were postponed by the government because of the resurgence in COVID-19 cases – leaving fans of all clubs uncertain when they will next be able to cheer on their team from the stands."

This was a plan that was set to be in motion by the start of October, but as it has been happening worldwide, the coronavirus has repeatedly made a comeback, causing spikes in different locations across the globe, some areas worse than others.

Apart from England, many countries have been slowly easing fans back into venues, depending on the situation, if it has improved or not when concerning COVID-19, will warrant if you can have the crowd fire back in play at your venue.

Collette Roche the club’s chief operating officer had this to say on the matter:

"We were really disappointed when the government decided not to allow fans back in the stadium in October because we’ve got everything in place to make sure we can do so safely.As you have seen today, we’ve got all the COVID security measures and other processes ready to go. We spent around two months working with the government guidelines to develop the right processes and measures to make sure that we can have around 23,500 people in this stadium safely social distancing.It’s quite bemusing to understand why people can gather in other settings such as on an aeroplane or a restaurant, or even in a cinema to watch football, when we know we’ve got the plans and the process is ready to deliver a match day here safely.The government gave us guidelines and it’s those guidelines that we have followed. (Via: Sky Sports)"

Stating that it is unfair for football fans to not be allowed to attend matches while crowd gathering occurs everywhere but inside stadiums, is certainly a solid point raised and something the English government must acknowledge.

They need to provide answers for something that makes this little sense and help us understand the logic behind it all. We all have our fingers crossed for this to take place sooner rather than later.