One of next month’s FA Cup semi-final matches at Wembley will be among the first events to try the return of large crowds to UK venues.
Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden told BBC sports that one of the matches on either 17 or 18 April will be part of the trial programme.
The FA Cup final and the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield are also on the schedule.
Dowden said:
“We want to get as many people back as safely as possible,”
The semi-final clash between Chelsea and Manchester City will take place on Saturday, April 17, with the Leicester vs Southampton coming up the following day.
Dowden also said more pilot events would be made known later this week after noting that from the government, the next stage of the planned easing of restrictions on April 12, is on course.
The following stage is scheduled for May 17, it would allow stadia to open with a 25% capacity limit, which is up to a maximum of 10,000 fans.
The current plan is to lift all restrictions on social contact on 21 June.
Dowden said:
“We want to make it as simple and convenient as possible for people. That’s why we are conducting these pilots,”
“The plan is to look at factors like one-way systems, ventilation within a stadium and how you interact in terms of getting to and from the venue.”
According to BBC sport, there will be up to 4,000 fans at one of the Wembley semi-finals and the following weekend the Carabao Cup final may likely see a double of that amount in attendance.
The possibility of having 20,000 fans at the FA Cup final on May 15 is being considered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Football Association. Those proposals would need to be accepted by the Brent Council.
Dowden added;
“The purpose of this is not so much the overall number, it is how they interact with each other,”
“So it’s the social distancing that they have from each other. It’s the behavioural factors.
Continuing, the Culture Secretary said they will be testing the players before and after to look at spread and see how they behave in the stadium.
