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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However, England chief medical officer has stated that any return should be slow and measured. Premier League chiefs met on Monday to discuss Project Restart and a return on June 12th is looking possible providing games are behind closed doors. Dowden said, “We all agreed that we will only go ahead if it is safe to do so and the health and welfare of players, coaches and staff comes first,”. He continued, “It is now up to the football authorities to agree and finalise the detail of their plans, and there is combined goodwill to achieve this for their fans, the football community and the nation as a whole”.

Not much training has been done under the current restrictions. The BBC report that Premier League bosses hope that team training can be conducted once strict guidelines are adhered to next week. John Van Tam Deputy Chief Medical Officer said on this, “There will be small, carefully measured, step-wise approaches to see what can be achieved safely. The first of those is to return safely to training, still observing social distancing”.

Brighton soccer manager Graham Potter however is still wary of a return to playing/training. This comes after the news that three Brighton players tested positive for Covid 19. He said “It’s a complex situation”. He said it’s difficult to call from one day to next on what will happen. “It will be as safe as it is made to be. The challenge will be when [we have] contact, larger groups and different teams. We need to see where we are on Monday and then Tuesday he said”.

In other footballing news clubs will now be allowed to agree short term contracts. This is on players whose deals run out on June 30th. BBC report that clubs now have until June 23rd to agree extensions.

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