Preston North End welcome plans to have fans back in stadiums in October

Matches have been played behind closed doors since football resumed a month ago after the Covid-19 enforced lockdown.

Speaking yesterday on the easing of lockdown measures, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the plan was to have fans in stadiums in the autumn.

There would be a handful of pilot events before then to test spectators in a ‘Covid-secure’ environment.

If October 1 does end up being the date to allow some fans back in, it would mean next season starting behind closed doors.

The current plan is for the EFL and Premier League to kick-off on September 12.

This would be hard to delay until October as the schedule is already a tight one in order for it to finish ahead of next summer’s Euros.

Peter Ridsdale, advisor to PNE owner Trevor Hemmings, told the Lancashire Post: “We were hoping fans coming back would be earlier and that we could start the season with people in the ground.

“At least there is now some certainty and we can plan for the beginning of October.

“I don’t think it would be possible to start the season in October because even starting on September 12 it is a very tight and tough schedule.

“There will be a lot of games in midweek because next season has to finish in May ready for the Euros which were pushed back from this summer.

“While October isn’t ideal it is better than things might have been.

“A couple of months ago the talk was of no fans being back in grounds until the new year which would have out a major hardship on clubs. If is has to be October we will live with that.

“The big problem for clubs at the moment is that there is no income because fans can’t buy tickets.”

It is unlikely that grounds will be able to run at anything near full capacity to start with.

There were media reports earlier in the week that the Premier League were working on the basis of having grounds at 40% capacity.

That would allow for social distancing, both during the games and when fans were arriving and leaving.

Assuming the season does have a September 12 start, North End are planning to return to training in the middle of August, the schedule to include some friendlies.

It would allow a short break for the squad after the end of this season.

PNE face Birmingham at Deepdale today (3pm), before the final game of the regular season at Bristol City on Wednesday evening.