Footballers and CoronaVirus

[Ray de Galles]

France to allow up to 5,000 fans to watch sport in stadiums

[jameswba]

Mainly for Ursos and anyone else with a passing interest in football in Slovakia : My local club, MSK Zilina, went into a sort of voluntary liquidation process back in March, resulting in 17 players having their contracts terminated. They were, however, awarded a licence to start next season and have now cancelled the liquidation process. It seems the plan all along was simply to cut costs by getting the best-paid players off the books. The club's whole philosophy is based around developing young players through its academy and selling them to clubs in bigger leagues, but they clearly feared the market would collapse as a result of the restrictions. One or two among the 17 might have fetched perhaps 2-3 million Euros this summer had circumstances been normal.

Quite rightly, the club has attracted criticism for this move, as have the Slovak football authorities for allowing them to get away with it.

[ursus arctos]

That is a very dangerous precedent

And not just in Slovakia

[Ray de Galles]

https://twitter.com/ollie_bayliss/status/1281265916718788613?s=21

[Ray de Galles]

So, I've asked this on the Groundhopper App thread but I wholly accept a lot of people won't read that given the social stigma attached ;

What is the best source of information (or is there any source at all) on which counties are now allowing crowds in to football/sport? Ideally summer leagues but it does appear that a lot of "winter" ones seem to have extensive friendlies going on too.

[Ray de Galles]

We can confirm that the UK Government approved our plan for the return of outdoor competitive grassroots football late last night, Friday 17 July 2020.

As a result, the grassroots football community now has the opportunity to return to football and prepare for the start of the new season.

We've been working hard over recent weeks to prepare guidelines for the safe return of grassroots football and, following Government approval, these are now ready for publication.

Football activity can take place with necessary modifications in place to mitigate the transmission risk of COVID-19.

We would strongly recommend a phased return to competitive football activity as follows:

• Until 31 July – When ready, you can begin competitive training, with the overall group size (inclusive of coaches) being limited to 30 people;

• From August – Competitive matches to begin, for example pre-season fixtures, festivals and small sided football competitions;

• From September – Grassroots leagues, men’s National League System, Women’s Football Pyramid tiers 3 to 6, and FA Competitions can commence.

[fatbear]

Is there any clarification on the number of spectators permited for the PSFs in August ? After all, you can now go and watch club cricket.............

[Satchmo Distel]

The full guidance (embedded pdf in the text of Ray's hyperlink) states that spectators are limited to groups of up to six that must be spread out. Additionally, each ground must do a Risk Assessment plan. So I think all grounds would need to get permission from the FA rather than just opening the gates. Football in public parks would have the distancing rule.

Higher up we may see experimental games with limited fans similar to the Surrey cricket one.

[Rich23]

That is interesting that grassroots football might be allowing fans to come and watch. I hope that grassroots football can continue through the whole of next season!

On another note, for anyone in the UK, specifically London, check out Football Clubs Near Me if you want to get involved with a football team locally.

Especially if the news is now saying people can come and watch too, it looks good for lower level football at the moment. I know a lot of teams are doing pre season at the moment too.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Are people going to watch a game this weekend? I have no interest myself, it seems to only be teams that play on a roped off pitch in a field or at a school at levels I’ve never even heard of that are playing in Essex this weekend.

[elguapo4]

Not this week because we're away, but I'm part of the matchday volunteers so I'll be at Bohs v Dundalk on Friday week.

[fatbear]

The Serbia Superliga 2020/21 season starts tonight to become the first league to resume after the COVID cessation , finish, take a break and start again.

[Ray de Galles]

https://twitter.com/argetrondur/status/1290987914709663746?s=21

[Ray de Galles]

I am finding it strange seeing crowds of 5000 or more at top flight games in France and the Netherlands, both countries that are on our government's quarantine list. Meanwhile, we struggle to get anything more than a few hundred people attending only grassroots sporting events in this country, save for a few pilot events with 1000 people each and they look tenuous.

Are they being foolhardy? Do our current situations with new infections differ greatly?

[San Bernardhinault]

I would think that the French and Dutch are being idiotic. France already has a massive uptick in cases. Britain is seeing what looks like the beginning of the same. Places where thousands of people are gathered, shouting, with no easy way to trace them back, seems like nearly a worst case scenario. The only thing worse would be doing it indoors. The British government is reckless and useless on most things Covid related, but on this they’re probably coming down OK. I’d even be wary about the few hundred at grass roots events, to be honest.

[Third rate Leszno]

I dunno, if those 5000 are spread across 4 stands with 1250 in each, there's masses of space between them and the only bit that would be remotely busy is the space beneath the stands and the bogs - and it might take a bit of thought for how you manage the exit of everyone together (assuming people arrive in a fairly staggered way as crowds usually do). I'd probably feel safer in there than I do when I'm on a train.

[Gangster Octopus]

It's weird seeing matches kick off at almost random times.

[Satchmo Distel]

I infer from Barwick's comments here that the Conference won't start on October 3rd if fans are not let in

https://www.theguardian.com/football...-disaster-fans

[Uncle Ethan]

They opened Optus Stadium for AFL matches here for a few weeks. Capacity was limited to 30,000 (from 60,000) and average crowd was around 20,000. They designed a stadium you can pretty much only get to by train or bus. Very few people are using trains or buses here - and we haven't had community transmission for over 150 days.

[DCI Harry Batt]

10 Football League games with crowds of 1,000 this weekend:

https://www.efl.com/news/2020/septem...weekend-pilot/

[Fussbudget]

It's bananas that we've been chosen as one of the pilot games given that our area is on the government watchlist and that we have tons of season ticket holders who travel from County Durham, which is going into lockdown on Friday. Apparently clubs in Greater Manchester were not even allowed to apply.

[Fussbudget]

I dunno, if those 5000 are spread across 4 stands with 1250 in each, there's masses of space between them and the only bit that would be remotely busy is the space beneath the stands and the bogs - and it might take a bit of thought for how you manage the exit of everyone together (assuming people arrive in a fairly staggered way as crowds usually do). I'd probably feel safer in there than I do when I'm on a train.

I don't know how spectators are spread at football games but I couldn't believe the state of the crowd at Catalans v Wigan at the weekend. That's a 5,000 crowd in a 13,000-seater, and everyone was crammed in the middle with the corners almost empty.

[Uncle Ethan]

Most stadiums will open only one or two parts of the ground for a limited attendance. Was that the case here?

[Third rate Leszno]

I don't know how spectators are spread at football games but I couldn't believe the state of the crowd at Catalans v Wigan at the weekend. That's a 5,000 crowd in a 13,000-seater, and everyone was crammed in the middle with the corners almost empty.

Christ. If the Paddock at Brunton Park ends up like that then I'll be stood by the corner flag with a couple of others.

It will be very interesting to see how standing areas are stewarded, given that they've been divided into blocks and your ticket is (theoretically) limited to that block. Will be a challenge when it's raining and only about 5 of the 18 blocks in the Paddock are covered by the stand roof. Normally a majority shuffle backwards until they're squeezed into the dry spec, but that really shouldn't happen now.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Have they just done a luck of the draw lottery for Carlisle season tickets, TrL? Did people have to apply?