Pressure grows on government to allow football fans’ return after November lockdown

Locked out | Supporters have not attended professional games since March
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Jack Rosser @JackRosser_9 November 2020

Pressure is growing on the government to allow fans to return to football stadiums after lockdown restrictions lift on December 2.

Ministers today debated the issue of supporters returning to grounds at all levels - which was intended to happen in October before cases began to rise once more - after a petition backed by the Premier League and Football League garnered nearly 200,000 signatures.

Jonathan Gullis, the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, called the debate and stated: "As of December 2 I will be expecting to see an announcement that fans are coming back into football stadiums."

Nigel Huddlestone MP, the Minister for Sport, stated that it was the government's will to see fans return "as soon as is safely possible", but laid out no timeline or date for pilot events or supporters to return, warning that - while transmission rates were admittedly low inside grounds due to them being open air - there remained issues around fans arriving at and gathering around stadia.

Alison McGovern MP, the Shadow Minister for Sport, warned that clubs had been "left hanging" by government without a clear plan as to the safe return of supporters.

Ms McGovern also said that a number of clubs had been left shocked by the decision to put a stop to pilot events after pouring enormous amounts of effort and money into the schemes.

Mr Huddlestone added that, when it came to financial support, at the elite level "football is expected to look after itself." However, the former chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Damian Collins MP, said that government "did not ask Netflix to bail out the arts". 

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