Lansdown hits out at crowds ‘u-turn’

City and Bears owner blasts Government for ‘panicking’ over return of supporters

BRISTOL City owner Steve Lansdown is frustrated with the UK Government’s decision to abandon pilot schemes to allow reduced crowds back into matches, and claims the latest measures have been driven by panic.

October was anticipated as the month when measures would be introduced for small numbers of spectators to be permitted back into grounds, with trial events at Norwich City, Charlton Athletic and Forest Green Rovers featuring 1,000 fans hosted across the weekend September 19-20.

However, the following week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put in place the “rule of six”, preventing social gatherings of more than halfa-dozen and revealed that pilot schemes in all sports would be indefinitely postponed.

Clubs across the EFL are now facing up to potentially six months of minimum revenue and crippling losses, which could well force many to go into administration.

Ashton Gate, the home of City and the Bristol Bears, had been set to host pilot events in rugby throughout

of

August and September, with the date consistently moved back until it was finally knocked on the head.

“It’s so disappointing that we don’t have crowds in the stadium, it’s even more disappointing that the Government has done a u-turn and stopped the pilots,” Lansdown told Bristol Sport TV. “That’s unnecessary and I think they panicked.

“We had done an awful lot of work in planning for getting people back into the stadium safely. People like Dave Storr (head of safety and security) and Ross Wormald (stadium