2 years till we get full houses again
UEFA stadia inspector Scott says it’s long road ahead for our fans EXCLUSIVE
UEFA official and Hamilton Accies administrator Scott Struthers fears it’ll be TWO YEARS before Scottish football welcomes capacity crowds back into stadiums.
Struthers, a UEFA stadium inspector and match delegate, has been travelling around Europe in recent months, seeing first-hand how the pandemic is being handled in other countries and its impact on football abroad.
While some nations have been able to welcome back large numbers to football grounds, the proportion allowed in has fluctuated in line with Covid-19 cases in the respective countries.
A fervent Accies fan, Struthers longs for the halcyon days of full stadiums and electric big-game atmospheres to return to Scotland.
Just before the lockdown hit, Hamilton pulled off a historic win over Rangers at Ibrox in front of 48,167 on March 4.
But when Accies make that trip to Govan once again next month, fans will have to stay at home to see how the game unfolds behind closed doors.
And hopes of a packed
BY PAUL THOMSON
Parkhead, where Accies claimed a 1-0 win over Celtic back in 2014, their first there for 76 years, are some way off.
With a second wave of the virus hitting the country and no imminent sign of a vaccine, games without fans or, at best, vastly reduced capacities look like being the norm for many more months to come.
Struthers, stadium inspector with European football’s governing body for nine years, said: “I speak to people from the medical side of the game, people with an informed opinion of this pandemic, and when I asked when they believe football would be back to normal – full stadiums – they say it’s potentially two seasons.
“And that’s assuming you get a working vaccine.
“You had over 15,000 at the UEFA Super Cup Final the other week and when I was in the Czech Republic last month, the top two divisions there were at 50 per cent capacity, plus 2,000.
“That would accommodate the vast majority of fans in Scotland, but once the cases rose over there, they cut that to a maximum of 2,000.
“So in terms of getting 60,000 at Celtic, 50,000 at Rangers, or even 10,000 at a Hamilton v
Rangers, that’s potentially two seasons away if what the medical experts say and what the medical feeling is. “Social distancing is going to be a fact of all of our lives for the medium to long term. “We are in a huge conundrum that is not easily solvable.” Test events have been held in the
Premiership, with 300 fans attending the matches between Aberdeen and Kilmarnock and Ross County and Celtic last month.
However, further test events have been shelved following the spike in cases
Struthers said: “It’s alright saying we can get 5,000 into Ibrox socially distanced. What is negatively affecting football is the 5,000 interactions that occur with that 5,000 getting to the game.”