2020 has been a year unlike any other, COVID has dominated all of our lives for over 6 months now and it is now hard to remember what life was like before this pandemic arrived.

As we can now see what looks like a second wave of COVID starting to take hold, the world of football is starting creak under the financial pressure from such a long period of revenue loss. EFL clubs without their main revenue stream, matchdays, are in desperate need for help in order to survive.

EFL clubs could ‘disappear within five to six weeks’

– Leyton Orient chairman

It is now not only the lower league teams but also teams in the Championship who are starting to call for financial support, even as recent as today news broke that “Six Championship clubs told Sky Sports News that if there is no financial bailout forthcoming they fear for the survival of their club.” A stark reminder of how fragile our game is and how reliant clubs truly are on their fans and their attendance.

For many areas the local football team is not only the life and soul of an area providing hope, joy and a community social life, it is also the main employer and revenue generator for the area. This does therefore mean that the importance of the survival of these clubs cannot be understated and not just because my team falls into this category. The clear and obvious solution to this is to ensure that fans can return to games as soon as possible, all the while sensibly and safe.

In September a number of pilot matches were due to be held across the EFL with a maximum of 1000 fans allowed into each ground. Of course social distancing was due to be in place as well as hand sanitizers placed around the ground. Clubs spent many months ensuring that the grounds were COVID safe and that everything was done to reduce the risk as much as possible. These trials were supposed to be the start of a much larger project to inevitably increase the crowd sizes across the board for all matches begining on the 1st October, this however did not materialise due to the Government slamming on the brakes in reaction to the rising infection rate.

“So we will not be able to do this from October 1 and I recognise the implications for our sports clubs which are the life and soul of our communities, and my right honourable friends the Chancellor and the Culture Secretary are working urgently on what we can do now to support them.”

Boris Johnson

Alongside the Arts and Theatre it seems that Sports are being looked upon as a luxury which is being left to fend for itself. The Premier league are being asked to help the EFL financially and whilst I agree this would be a good thing for them to do I also take the view as why should they? Why should the Premier league have to step in to help the EFL when say for example Wetherspoons do not have to step in and help the smaller pubs?

This does strike me as yet another example of how the Government and to a greater extent the Culture Secretary ‘Oliver Dowden’ simple lack of understanding or overall care about taking action on this swiftly and effectively.

In the last week it has also been announced that the O2 Arena and The Royal Albert Hall are both to host events with a maximum 25% capacity. If it is ok for this to be accomodated for two inside venues then why can something not be done for an outdoor open air football stadium…?

As more time passes it is now becoming clear that without a tried and tested vaccine we are going to have to live alongside COVID for the forseeable future, it is for this reason that I believe we need to allow ‘normal’ life to remain as much as possible.

What my plan for a return to football would look like:

I believe the above could be implemented within a matter of weeks across the EFL and Premier League and would be a great start in getting fans back into stadiums, as well as helping clubs generate some much needed revenue and escapism for the public away from our COVID dominated every day lives.

If you haven’t already then sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/552036