Well, the question on every football fans lips is "Should we be allowed back in?"
Should fans be allowed back in? In my opinion, Yes - they should. Here's why, lower league sides like Grimsby rely on the fan income, ticket sales, matchday revenue like the food kiosks, matchday programmes, raffles in and around the ground they all help. Now you may argue, well the Premier League are losing out on fans too. Yes, they are however the Premier League are also still spending a lot of money on players, take Chelsea for example spent about £220m on players this season - whereas £250m is what the EFL are asking the Premier League for to save Clubs - without any income, EFL clubs will go up the wall, there needs to be a bail-out, will we get it? who knows, is it needed now more than ever? The short answer is yes.
Boris Johnson has since encouraged people to go the cinema, after Cineworld entered crisis talks. So, if people can go to the cinema, inside - watch a film for however long, why can't we as football fans attend games in a socially distanced stadium, outside too? Boris Johnson, the Premier League - are you going to help? Or just sat around whilst watching EFL clubs go bust. It's not just a club we would be losing. It would be losing a home, losing a family, losing a lifetime of emotions, losing our life. Football means so much to so many people, and if lower league football is going to be no-more and it just carries on being the Premier League and they're millions it will be heartbreaking for so many people across the country.
Just recently, Manchester United fans went mental on twitter, due to the Glazers not wanting to spend £100+ million on one player, then saying "We want our club back". Now i'm not for one minute suggesting all top flight fans are like this, but when EFL clubs are in crisis and in-need of a hand out, please try to remember there is leagues below the Premier League that aren't as rich. Infact, Bury FC and Macclesfield Town, two clubs near Manchester have been liquidated. That is when fans want there clubs back, when you no longer have a club, because some chairman has ran it up the wall - not because you won't spend big on one player.
If people are allowed into pubs, restaurants, arcades, cinemas which is an enclosed environment and hardly any follow the rules when they have a few drinks in them then surely fans SHOULD be allowed back into stadiums, Clubs have worked tirelessly to aim to get the stadiums socially distanced ready, Grimsby included - I volunteered to get the stadium ready, we tried our best, we was doing all we could. Until the announcement of fans being allowed back into football stadiums was delayed indefinitely. Was it a kick in the teeth? Yes.
I was lucky, because of volunteering, I was invited to watch the Carabao Cup fixture against Morecambe being a "Ball Boy". Everyone was socially distanced and wearing the appropriate PPE. Temperatures were took upon entry and volunteers were mandated to use the hand sanitizer, the measures taken were done brilliantly.
Could they implement that into allowing fans back into stadiums as a "No mask, no entry" policy potentially? If it got fans back into stadiums quicker i'm all for it, would it be difficult to police? Of course, but every little helps (Sorry Tesco)
So, i doubt a small blog will do anything however.
Boris, I'm urging you to allow fans back into stadiums, it's a must at this point - even if it's 500/1000 fan, that money will help clubs,
They would still need the bail out to stay afloat but in these times of uncertainty, potentially playing behind closed doors all season, the £250m is needed more than ever. I see a few Premier League fans say "No, we shouldn't help them, they got into that mess".
Just remind me how many Premier League footballers have played in lower leagues before? The amount of loan players from Premier League clubs to EFL clubs where the EFL clubs develops the young talents - end of the loan spell and he's back on the bench for Burnley, so remember the lower leagues are needed,
Boris, please do something!