England Allows Fans Into Football Matches Again

With the pandemic still going on and through-out all of the suffering and pain, soccer fans in England are beginning to be let back into the stadiums after 9 long months.

After months of watching games from their couches, the fans were finally allowed back in. Saturday, December 5th in London England, West Ham United hosted Manchester United. The game was held in London Stadium, which has the ability to hold 80,000 fans. With all the regulations implemented from Covid-19, only 2,000 fans were allowed in to view the match. They all had to socially distance and wear a mask at all times. The fans also had to go through a number of health checks, such checking their temperature. During the match the fans are told not to get close and hug, and when singing or chanting to not be excessively loud. While speaking in a press conference before a big game with Arsenal. Jose Mourinho, the manager of Tottenham, said, “It depends on the fans, their profile, the way people will face the game,” when asked about his feelings towards fans being let in.

Over in Europe football is extremely popular. In England, specifically, they love the game. They have an absurd amount of pro leagues, but the top four are the ones people really pay attention too. In these four leagues, there are a combined 92 teams.

Regarding recent rules, there are a number of tiers that regard to Covid- 19, and if you are allowed to have fans in your stadium. Tier 2 means you are allowed to have fans back in the stadiums with a maximum of 2,000. If you are tier 3, you still have to practice the same rules as before. West Ham United is a tier 2 team and since they were playing at home, they are allowed to have fans in the stadium, but Manchester United is a tier 3 team, and if they were to play at home they wouldn’t be allowed to have fans.

As of ten months ago, the Premier League shut down their league games with fears of Covid-19. Throughout the time away from the field, players took to streaming online. Players such as Augero, Neymar, and many others took to major online streaming sites and made a huge impact. With fear of the league being canceled all together, the Premier league held online FIFA 20 tournaments with some of the league’s biggest names competing against each other for charity. With new ideas and rules being put in place the league had an idea they called “Project Restart,” giving the teams the chance to train and play to finish the season.

On June 17th, the first match of project restart happened. The season was finished with no fans allowed back in the stadiums. On September 12th, the 2020-2021 season started with the same rules as “Project Restart”, there were still no fans allowed in the stadiums. The day had come. It would be a monumental moment and this past Saturday, on December 5th, fans were finally allowed back in.

Coronavirus isn’t the only issue we have to deal with inside stadiums. With racism being a worldwide issue players were given the opportunity to kneel before games to show respect and “say no to racism.” Some fans in lower league games and in the top league games took their chance to watch soccer again to boo the players pre match when they kneeled. At the West Ham vs. Manchester United game, fans booed the players before the match and the fans started to boo Manchester United player Paul Pogba during the match. He would then go on to score and lead his team to victory. All in all, the world of football is transitioning into a new normal and will begin to face many challenges.