Closed door games?

[jwok]

Uefa has lifted the 'blocked hours' protection granted to England and Scotland for the remainder of the 2019-20 season following requests from the relevant national associations as a result of measures taken in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.


This might suggest an intention to finish the season with closed door games and a TV audience.

[Handsome_Devil]

I can see why they want the option but to me it's just buying time before the inevitable.

Closed door professional games will still require, at absolute minimum, 50 folk and probably more I haven't thought of. So authorities will need to hugely relax rules on gatherings.

Secondly, you need to be near 100% convinced that no one in a team (realistically club) can catch the virus as if someone does they go into isolation as do their contacts and the league is knackered again.

Football is a sport that until about a week before it cancelled the Euros insisted it would go ahead, originally planned league suspensions or a couple of weeks, UEFA pencilled in playoffs for June!

I appreciate the legal/financial ramifications need time to be worked through but I wouldn't be putting much value on most of the comments in the meantime.

[Handsome_Devil]

Rather conveniently the union magazine just landed this morning and included the titbit that the Gladbach-Cologne closed door game here had:

115 people for TV production
60 photographers
45 print/online reporters
5 radio reporters
around 60 'others' to give a 'crowd' of nearly 300.