September return for supporters at the SoL?
Sunderland fans could be back in the Stadium of Light as early as September - according to FA chief executive Mark Bullingham.
While the Premier League and Championship are returning to action this week, all games will be played in front of empty stadiums – with current government social distancing rules meaning it would prove near-impossible to have supporters cheering on their side.
But with rules being relaxed, the FA are hopeful that supporters could be allowed back into stadiums for when the 2020/21 season kicks-off.
No firm start date has yet been set for the new League One campaign, but it is widely expected that it will be at some point in mid-September – by which point Bullingham hopes measures could be in place to allow supporters to watch games.
However, that is likely to come with the caveat of a reduced capacity.
“I would really hope that by the return of the new season we might be in a position whereby some fans could start to return to stadiums,” said Bullingham, speaking to the Guardian.
“I know that would be another important part of restoring the financial position of clubs.
“When we look ahead to September, we are hoping we are in a very different situation than we are now as a country, and we hope at some point we can start having crowds back.
“We’re looking at loads of options; we’re even getting people to map out what traffic flows (of fans) look like in stadia, explore what it could look like with one-metre, twometre social distancing and so on.”