Sport in disarray after Boris Johnson suspends pilot events | sport

Professional sport was plunged back into a now familiar sense of uncertainty on Friday after the government’s decision to suspend spectator testing events caused confusion in disarray.

The completion of the Premier League season and a successful series of tests between England and the West Indies had raised hopes that the sport was ready to go behind closed doors and welcome back fans. After plans to allow limited spectator participation at Glorious Goodwood and the World Snooker Championship were canceled with hours’ notice, that proposal is now in doubt.

The news was relayed by Boris Johnson in a televised speech. Shortly after the FA announced it was suspending plans to allow fans to enter Wembley for the Community Shield at the end of August, one of the most prestigious events to have been booked as pilot. The St Leger festival in Doncaster is another, with promoters saying they hope punters can attend in September. If they can’t, however, Flat’s last chance to recoup some of his lost money will be gone.

The hiatus on the pilots, which has also affected plans to allow spectators to take part in two county cricket matches this weekend, will be in place for a fortnight until August 15. What will happen after this, however, is unclear. The parameters by which the government would decide it was safe to resume are unknown, even within the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports.

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s announcement, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden could only tweet his condolences. Very disappointing news that with increasing infection rates we cannot move sports pilots forward with fans this weekend, he wrote. I know the tremendous efforts cricket, snooker and horse racing have made to welcome fans back. Well, keep working together for their safe return as soon as possible.

For football, the need to bring supporters back to the stadiums is urgent, but it is not yet immediate. The FA is hoping that a clear and clear government on August 15 will give them enough time to prepare to make Wembley a hotbed of socially distant spectators.

The FA have offered to use the Community Shield at Wembley as a test event and are waiting to see if this is possible under government guidelines, an FA spokesperson said. We, along with the rest of football, want supporters to return to stadiums and fields as soon as it can be done safely.

The Premier League and EFL hope to have supporters returning to league games by October, a goal confirmed earlier this week by Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston. A two-week hiatus from pilot events is unlikely to impact this schedule, as the Premier League had no plans to hold any test events before the pre-season, with many of those matches likely to be ‘take place in September.

The biggest challenge for football wouldn’t be the test events, but giving individual clubs enough time to prepare their stadiums once the green light is given. This is especially complicated for EFL clubs which not only have fewer resources to make the adaptations, but need more turnstile income to survive.

In the race, the cancellation of the pilot event at Glorious Goodwood would have cost the organizers 100,000 in preparation time. The Yorkshire Ebor Festival, scheduled to take place August 19-22 and which had been designated as a pilot event, subsequently announced that it would also take place behind closed doors. While this is clearly a disappointing decision for racing fans and many in our hometown; it is right that public health remains a priority, organizers said.

Regarding the St Leger, Arena Racing Company Managing Director Mark Spincer said: We will not rule out having a certain level of pilot event there if it is deemed appropriate to do so.

The outlook for races, especially independent courses, will be seriously affected if the last flagship event of the year cannot let people in. The lack of supporters will also hit World Snooker hard.

He planned to operate at one-third of capacity at the Crucible in Sheffield to allow social distancing, and hoped to earn around 700,000 tickets. Some fans were allowed in on Friday opening day 125 out of a capacity of 900, but other tickets have now been canceled.

We realize this will be a huge disappointment to the fans who were thrilled to witness the magic of the Crucible over the next fortnight, and we feel the same ourselves, said World Snooker President Barry Hearn. Above all, it is a great shame for the people who had those golden tickets, but in the circumstances we are living in now, we have to accept the decision and move on.

Meanwhile, an RFL spokesperson has confirmed that both Super League games will take place this Sunday, despite the tightening of the lockdown at Huddersfield, whose side will travel to Headingley to face Leeds Rhinos. The rugby league is still hoping to get the green light from DCMS to get involved in organizing pilot events in September, even though the government has blocked the process for at least a fortnight.

Clubs don’t budget for crowds to return until October, so anything before that would be a bonus, a spokesperson said. RFL has been working with DCMS on behalf of Super League clubs for some time to make it clear that we would be delighted to be involved in hosting pilot matches with crowds in September.

Sky Sports’ continued support and the government guaranteed loan have been of tremendous help to our clubs going through such difficult times. But the restructuring of the season was built around the hope that the crowds will be allowed to return to sporting events from October, with some big games delayed until the end of the rescheduled season in the weeks leading up to the play. -offs in November.