Full Wembley for Euro 2020 final dependent on Covid passports
Boris Johnson’s ambition to have a 90,000 crowd at Wembley for the European Championship final on July 11 may be impossible to fulfil unless he overcomes concern around Covid-19 passports, industry experts warned last night.
The Prime Minister has admitted he is “some way off” finalising details of a certification phone app, after signalling a potential showdown with sceptical backbench MPS may not take place until June.
With other parts of the leisure industry also warning they will oppose the technology’s potential impact on civil liberties, its widespread use in time for the delayed Euro 2020 final is in doubt.
Last night, however, Johnson also faced calls to fast-track the technology. The medical company hired by the Premier League to test players since Project Restart insists that digital passports are the most realistic route to full venues this summer.
Avi Lasarow, chief executive of Prenetics, said: “The best chance of stadiums opening to best effect this year is a digital health passport which addresses the issues of Covid status in a secure and private form.”
Lasarow said detailed health passports for players had played a critical role in stopping the virus spread among footballers.
“We’ve always advocated that clinical digital health passports are going to become a tool that will reassure families at major events out of lockdown,” he said. “In the Premier League, we have been running with them almost since the onset. With every single game, the health passport is allowing access into the red zone, to enable players to play safely. I think they are the natural enabler to getting back to business.”
At his Downing Street press conference yesterday, Johnson suggested mass use of the technology would only be considered at Stage 4 of lockdown easing, from June 21.
Covid-19 checks will be trialled in stadium pilots, with the Football Association ensuring fans are tested before and after the FA Cup semifinal and Carabao Cup final. Johnson is understood to favour the use of vaccine and test certification.
“The principle of requiring some people to have a certificate to prove they are not passing on the disease, that can be a sensible one,” he said.
The Daily Telegraph understands that Johnson has met resistance from senior scientists over his ambition to get Wembley full by July 11. The FA is set to tell Uefa this week that it hopes to have the national stadium 50 per cent full by the semifinal stage.