“New Normal”: Sports Fans Could Be Banned From Drinking and Encouraged to Stamp, Not Cheer

2 min read

A member of SAGE has suggested that the Government should learn from the Black Lives Matter movement in how to make mask-wearing and social distancing “an inherent part” of attending sports events, as plans are being drawn up to ban drinking and encourage stamping and clapping rather than cheering at large events. The Times has the story.

Sports fans could be banned from drinking and encouraged to stamp and clap instead of cheering under plans to make mass events safe for the summer.

As British cities prepare to host football’s European Championships, tests are under way to discover whether it is better for social distancing to ban alcohol or to serve fans pints in their seats to prevent crowding at bars.

Ministers have accepted that testing before entry is likely to be required to make concerts, festivals and sporting fixtures safe even after all restrictions are lifted on June 21st. They are debating which elements of social distancing and Covid-secure rules will need to remain in place beyond that date…

Boris Johnson is keen to take a cautious approach to reopening and pilots are taking place to see which mitigation measures will need to be retained at concerts, nightclubs and stadiums.

The use of masks, physical distancing, hugs and handshakes, singing and the sharing of food and drink are all being monitored using CCTV and wearable devices. Different levels of social distancing rules and ventilation are also being trialled, with participants being tested five days later…

Professor Dame Theresa Marteau of the University of Cambridge, a behavioural scientist and member of SAGE, is chairing the scientific group overseeing the test events. In a scientific paper published just before they began, she argued it would be essential to create “new norms” for sports and music fans. “While it is a basic norm of many sports crowds that people express passionate support for their team, and without that the whole activity has little meaning… it may be possible to develop new and distinctive ways of expressing that passion (stamping, clapping, etc) that are of lower risk than shouting or singing,” she wrote.

She suggested learning from the Black Lives Matter movement in how to weave Covid-secure messages into the fabric of sporting events – making social distancing and mask-wearing “an inherent part” of what it means to be a fan of a team. However, she emphasised this would need to be developed in partnership with fans rather than imposed by the Government.

Players and pop stars should be encouraged to “scrupulously observe restrictions such as not hugging each other after a success” to reinforce the message, she suggested.

Worth reading in full.

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118 Comments
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Epi
Epi
5 years ago

Which part of FUCK and OFF don’t they understand?

TreeHugger
TreeHugger
5 years ago

Anyone who attends any of these ‘sanitized’ events needs to ask themselves this:
If they and every other member of the crowd has tested negative what does it matter whether they shout, sing or eat and drink?

Anyone playing along with this lunacy deserves to have a very dull life, lived in black & white.

TreeHugger
TreeHugger
5 years ago
Reply to  TreeHugger

I’ve been trying to imagine going to a sanitized concert. Among the many gigs I’ve been to, I’ve seen The Killers quite a few times and trying to imagine nothing but clapping when Mr. Brightside starts up…….yeah….that’s never gonna happen.

marebobowl
marebobowl
5 years ago

Stop this nonsense, take back your freedoms. Demand they be given back. Stop sitting on your hands.

AngloWelshDragon
AngloWelshDragon
5 years ago

This is nothing to do with health and actually nothing to do with “the great reset” either. It’s simply another manifestation of a deeply puritanical and joyless aspect of human nature that rears it’s head throughout history and periodically gains ascendency. We are unfortunate to be living through one such period.

Puddleglum
Puddleglum
5 years ago

Isn’t this a bit dodgy? Soldiers are told to break step when marching over bridges for a reason.

chaos
chaos
5 years ago

The men (and those identifying as men) couild beat their chests if their team wins… like gorillas.

Richy_m_99
Richy_m_99
5 years ago

For a foretaste of things to come, these are the conditions that audience members at the Crucible HAD TO SIGN A CONTRACT AGREEING TO, in order to attend.

https://wst.tv/checklist/

No bloody way is any event worth going to under those conditions.

Ruth Sharpe
Ruth Sharpe
5 years ago
Reply to  Richy_m_99

Yes, a foretaste indeed. That’s one to go in the file for reference! Note the use of the NHS app!

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
5 years ago

Sorry, I don’t recall seeing a SAGE party candidate last time I voted…

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago

Yes, it’s a coup d’etat. Big pharma’s had too much influence for years and years, only difference now is it’s more obvious.

WilliamC
WilliamC
5 years ago

BLM is the go-to political formation for liberal technocrats and system managers hungry for vicarious street-fighting credibility. The corporate world draws from the same well – business discourse, especially around diversity in recruitment, frequently references ‘what BLM has taught us’, ‘how the death of George Floyd changed the way we think about…’ etc etc. Like the other alphabet protest groups (RTS, XR, KTB) BLM is an approved and managed form of rebellion – unlike the anti-lockdown movement, of course, which is a genuine insurgency, or at least possesses the capacity for mass insurgency. 

Carrie Symonds
Carrie Symonds
5 years ago

I’m up for stamping – on Boris’s balls.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago

Here’s the SAGE zealot who wants to control our minds and make us all “more healthy”:

comment image

She’s only 64 in that pic and looks like she could be 84.

A case of “physician heal thyself”.

Tenchy
Tenchy
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

She’s one of those “nudge” fuckers; a menace to society. And at 68 she’s long past the time when she should have retired. Taken to a logical conclusion, she’s doing a younger person out of a job.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Marteau

Jane G
Jane G
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Ye gods!

HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Christ, I didn’t know what she looked like but, after reading this article I had a photo-fit in mind…and it fitted!

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

Lol!

Attaboy
Attaboy
5 years ago

Silicone valley is making sure that the only smiles we can see are those on our social media pages. There will be no more socializing as we know it unless it is via facebook. And when the climate agenda comes next it will further reduce society to a bunch of pixels

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  Attaboy

Strange times we live in, when being normal is an alternative lifestyle!!!

Just a thought, what if we all make an effort to join old normal groups for regular meeetups, even if it means attending events we would not normally be interested in? Perhaps some people will go to raves for the first time, just as a point of principle? There’s got to be a backlash against all this unnatural madness.

Julian
Julian
5 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

I don’t like crowds but every time I see a film or TV scene of a heaving bar or club I think to myself I want to be there, and do that. I don’t suppose I will get the chance.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

I have not watched a football match since March last year including the FA cup final and the semi-final (former CFC fan) although I did try to watch the Madrid derby but the stream was poor.

BLM is the reason I will no longer watch any of this so to see them invoked again is I feel a further showing of contempt from those who wish to control these things and by virtue us.

My contempt for football fans is also growing especially after the furore over the ‘new’ league proposals. The fuss made about that while ignoring all of the recent shit show including the above means it is best I avoid such people. Another avenue of pleasure that closed off – to quote one Basil Fawlty.

Despite my best efforts to make the best of things every week delivers a fresh horror. I am really wondering what levels I would go if I thought i could stop all this. Best left …

BillRiceJr
BillRiceJr
5 years ago

Has there been definitive evidence of ONE “super spreader” event from an outdoor sporting event? If there is, I missed it. I’d note that pro and college teams aren’t the only teams that have played sports in the past 10 months. High school teams did as well, and I know for a fact that many of the high school football games in my state were filled with at least 50 percent fans, fans who were NOT socially distancing or even wearing masks. I have heard of no local outbreak after any of these many games.

DanClarke
DanClarke
5 years ago

Behavioural Scientists are certainly a socially challenged bunch. Most likely with restricted childhoods, parent issues, playground bullies, tittle tattles, needing a weekly therapy session.

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Stamping? hilarious!

It reminds me of that Sumo wrestler who was considered a bit of a bad boy because he actually punched the air when he won a fight.

Luddite
Luddite
5 years ago

Ministers have accepted that testing before entry is likely to be required to make concerts, festivals and sporting fixtures safe even after all restrictions are lifted on June 21st. 

All restrictions lifted? – testing! Doesn’t sound like it to me.

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  Luddite

So to be clear, a class of people will be denied going to the theatre, going to the match and other things besides for an indefinite period of time? And quite a lot of people in some demographics (ethnic/religious minorities?). Can they really get away with this?

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago

If the clubs go along with this, let them. Their revenues will never recover. They are already in a world of hurt – that’s why they wanted to create the Super League.

Julian
Julian
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

March 2020 one would not have expected people to put with so much shit for so long, but they did. Sadly I believe they will continue to do so.

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

14th March, 2020, a packed crowd of over 3,000 at a match in county Durham. How is it more dangerous now? Seriously?
Allegedly 14 cv deaths that Saturday. 7 announced today. Something strange happened to people in the past year, yes indeedy. The psychologists of the future will have a field day analysing all this.

Eklektikos
Eklektikos
5 years ago

Does it really say that they want hugs and handshakes to be monitored by CCTV, or do I need to get my eyes tested? Or are these people totally barking mad?

DanClarke
DanClarke
5 years ago
Reply to  Eklektikos

Barking mad

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  Eklektikos

“Right, you high fived someone outside of your bubble after that goal. Don’t try and deny it, I saw you. I must ask you to leave the stadium”.

Speaking of Barking, why was it safer to watch sport there than in Lancashire?

Annie
Annie
5 years ago

Be like BLM. Smash statues. Destroy property. Act like 1980s football fans.

peyrole
peyrole
5 years ago

A little titbit of statistics.
There were 7 recorded deaths in the UK ‘with’ covid today. Which everyone will celebrate as so very small etc etc , must be the vaccines etc.
Well its TWICE the rate of death per head of population as recorded today in INDIA! ( 80 )
Doubt you will read it expressed like that in the MSM. ‘Cases’ in India were also about half of UK rate per head of population.

peyrole
peyrole
5 years ago

If anyone hasn’t read it , I link the english chapter pdf ( second one down) , of Bhakdi’s book ‘Corona unmasked’ . Warning for anyone of a nervous disposition or who has just been vaccinated, best not read without stiff drink.
https://www.goldegg-verlag.com/titel/corona-unmasked/

Noumenon
Noumenon
5 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

Thanks for that. Very disturbing…

What is more, it seems that particularly the vacci-nated are dying. Is this perhaps the immune-related exacerbation of diseases we have reason to fear? Not caused by antibodies, but by activated killer lympho-cytes? And couldn’t this happen at any time to anyone vaccinated – tomorrow, the next day, next week, next fall? Because lymphocytes have an elephant’s memory. And they recognize something that looks similar in all coronaviruses: the molecular garbage that is produced by the virus-infected cells. That is, the lymphocyte-in-duced exacerbation of disease progression could argua-bly occur with any infection with a related virus. In any “successfully” vaccinated person – young or old – and at any time in the near or distant future.

James Kreis
James Kreis
5 years ago

Forget the BLM movement. The government should learn from the massive march for freedom which took place in central London last Saturday. No social distancing, no masks, no hand sanitiser but plenty of shouting, singing, laughing, handshakes and hugs, Humanity in action.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

“Forget the BLM movement.”

Or don’t necessarily ‘forget’ it – just don’t get diverted by it and get it out of proportion.

I’ve had far more success showing up the hypocrisy of the BLM movement by simply highlighting their actual beliefs than I have showing the real situation over Covid.

It’s a misdirection.

NonCompliant
NonCompliant
5 years ago

I can imagine fans at certain clubs not going along with this. I’m a regular at one of these clubs and i’m wondering if they would try and sanction clubs whose supporters push back and sing and chant, maybe celebrate the odd goal? I can hear the tannoy blurting out warnings to crowd already !

I’ve not watched footy for a year now as I didn’t think i’d ever be allowed back in a stadium again since I was never going to take a vaccine or be swabbed like a lab rat.

The fact this commie dropped in BLM as a role model says it all really. I’m just amazed they didn’t suggest jazz hands !!!!!!

Hugh
Hugh
5 years ago
Reply to  NonCompliant

There have already been clubs sanctioned after breaches of social distancing, as I recall. Remember the televised FA cup match where they were putting messages over the tannoy for people to obey the rules? (Maybe clubs should follow the example of Marine and create some “gardens” overlooking the pitch where people could do what they want)

Catee
Catee
5 years ago

“A member of SAGE has suggested that the Government should learn from the Black Lives Matter movement in how to……”
Desecrate our heritage and monuments and play the victim.
Because that’s the only thing the BLM could teach anyone.

PoshPanic
PoshPanic
5 years ago

I fixed the opening line..

A member of the public has suggested that Sage and the Government should all be held at the Tower and tried for treason.

Splatt
Splatt
5 years ago

When this is all over, the one field of science that will have been damaged more than anything else is Behavioural Psychologist.

People will see it as a worthless and incredibly dangerous manipulation technique.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  Splatt

I think you’re right – it’s a case of scientific abuse dominating worthwhile research.

I’m sure a lot of decent social and clinical psychologists will be appalled.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago

I do wonder whether we react too much to sociopathic nutters like this, and similarly jump too predictably at the fakery of the virtue-signalling BLM stuff.

Remember the way of dealing with attention-seeking kids? Don’t give them attention.

Julian
Julian
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

I take your point.

I don’t think these proposals will gain much traction, but as I posted earlier I think they serve to reinforce the idea that some kind of restrictions and “new normal” are necessary and inevitable.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Yes, Julian – it’s a difficult balance getting the reaction right in the face of the wall of propaganda that is being generated.

And indeed, the oldest trick in the political book is to propose something totally outrageous and then back-peddle to something that is just ‘outrageous’ to get it accepted.

In my experience, the major problem is simply breaking through the blithe acceptance of any old crap that is fed to the public, and the fact that the large majority think that the members of SAGE are engaged in ‘science’. I run across gullible belief every day.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

They tried to stop loud swearing on the terraces some years ago, how did that go ?

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

I’m completely at a loss about what BLM have to do with it and what example of theirs we might be expected to follow.

yLivi.
yLivi.
5 years ago

Well, Texas Rangers had their opener on April 6th with a packed 34,000 crowd attendance. They have also lifted all their restrictions (including mask wearing) since March 2nd. They have also a wide spread of the so-called British variant. You would expect a “surge” or something of the like, right? The answer is that nothing has really happened. Nothing. Britain has been the epicenter of covid misinformation and propaganda. We (by “we” i mean European countries) did lockdown only after Imperial’s false model for 500,000 deaths etc. Since then all type of scientific rubbish has emerged. Please, live your myth but not spread it out.

Lockdown_Lunacy
Lockdown_Lunacy
5 years ago
Reply to  yLivi.

I don’t think it can be said that it is anybody on this website’s myth. Imperial college pseudo scientists don’t speak for me just because they happen to be based in the same country as me.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  yLivi.

If you remember, there was the ‘bodies in the streets’ scenario after beaches got crowded last year in the UK.

7fonn7
7fonn7
5 years ago

BLM’s vision for fans at these events sounds like a real riot!… See what i did there?

Sausalito
Sausalito
5 years ago

Professor Dame Theresa Marteau and her colleagues at SAGE want to destroy our culture and ways of life. The new abnormal needs to be resisted at all costs.

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