The U.K.’s biggest crowd in more than a year celebrated the return of football on Saturday evening for the final of the FA Cup – but Wembley Stadium was still at less than a quarter of capacity. The MailOnline has the story.
Youri Tielemans struck the only goal of the game in the Foxes’ triumph over Chelsea, with the Club’s tearful owner dedicating the trophy to his father, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who died in a helicopter crash in 2018.
The return of so many fans, however – meaning the national stadium was at nearly a quarter of capacity – was arguably the biggest winner on the day.
In what was the latest Government pilot event to trial life after lockdown, every supporter to walk through the turnstiles had to return a negative lateral flow test before settling down to watch the glamour tie.
Many wore facemasks throughout the game but thousands of delirious Leicester fans embraced each other at the final whistle, as they clinched their first ever FA Cup.
Outside their home ground, the King Power Stadium, hundreds more gathered to celebrate, waving flags and letting off flares.
While it provided hope for many as a glimpse of a return to normality, ministers today called for caution, with the Culture Secretary admitting the U.K. is entering a “period of heightened vigilance”, with the Indian variant threatening the return of live events.
Oliver Dowden said the Government will continue to assess the spread of the variant in the coming weeks and update venues on their reopening.
Limited audiences will be allowed back into theatres, music venues and sports stadiums from Monday as part of the third stage of Boris Johnson’s “roadmap” out of lockdown.
Step four – planned for June 21st – would see social distancing end and many venues able to stage shows to a full house for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
But Government scientists revealed in minutes released on Friday night that the “highly transmissible” Indian variant could be 50% more infectious than the Kent strain – which models project could lead to 1,000 deaths a day, as well as 10,000 daily hospitalisations, by the summer.
And while the Prime Minister is pinning his hopes of beating the virus on a “flexed” jab drive, experts fear vaccinations are not the key to slowing the spread.
Given the Government’s pessimistic outlook, there is no doubt that we will have to wait much longer for events such as these to return to normal. The Government is said to have already told football’s UEFA that crowd sizes at upcoming events will be limited to 45,000.
The MailOnline report is worth reading in full.
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“Many wore facemasks throughout the game” – Doesn’t look like many, in the photograph!
Oh they wore them. Just not necessarily over their face.
More to the point, when can we return to no restrictions for sporting events? Or is government overreach and mission creep going to keep this nonsense going indefinitely? (Sorry, but I propose to ask “are we nearly there yet”? until we get our rights back, as a point of principle).
I hope those Leicester fans hugged each other cautiously! I notice stamping and clapping only didn’t catch on.
No the mail report is not worth reading in full.
Mostly what I saw was normal people not complying with idiotic mask wearing. As I have posted already even the BBC cocked it up showing maskless fans at half time, immediately after some pretend Minister said they were checking the effectiveness of masks.
Also, the mail’s reporting ignores the very obvious question of what are they testing for ? And why is everyone happy to ignore the PHE report “Impact of Mass Gatherings on an Influenza Pandemic – Scientific Evidence Base Review”.
In fact that paper should be mentioned every time these disgusting “Test” events happen. Events that actually ban under 18’s and vulnerable people. Yeah. Let’s all cheer at that.
Good our media are lazy.
Poor form to reply to myself – but my p1ss is boiled by this!
The conclusion from the report mentioned above was;
“ In conclusion there is limited data indicating that mass gatherings are associated with influenza transmission and this theme is continued with the inclusion of new evidence for the update. Certain unique events such as the Hajj, specialised settings including civilian and military ships- a new theme for this update, indoor venues and crowded outdoor venues provide the primary evidence base to suggest mass gatherings can be associated with Influenza outbreaks. Some evidence suggests that restricting mass gatherings together with other social distancing measures may help to reduce transmission. However, the evidence is still not strong enough to warrant advocating legislated restrictions. Therefore, in a pandemic situation a cautious policy of voluntary avoidance of mass gatherings would is still the most prudent message. Operational considerations including practical implications of policy directed at restricting mass gathering events should be carefully considered”
It’s all there folks 50 odd pages. What the fuck are they testing for ?
Speaking of mass gatherings, is there any evidence yet of the effect, if any, of a packed baseball stadium in Texas at Easter (over 38,000)? Not to mention the admirable insistence of Belarus of continuing with crowds at football as normal throughout.
“The Government is said to have already told football’s UEFA that crowd sizes at upcoming events will be limited to 45,000.”
In God’s name, what the hell is the difference between 45,000 and 90,000, if what you’re worried about is the spread of a virus? How many times does this dishonest government need to see large gatherings of people (of the kind that have taken place many times over the last 15 months) which are not followed by any ‘spike’ in infections, before making the simple decision to stop behaving like a BUNCH OF F**KING PUSSIES and just get on with normal life?
Give them games and bread….
At last an opportunity for “real fans” to comment on knee taking which went down as well as a bucket of vomit
The last time that Leicester city appeared in the final they played Manchester City in front of crowd of 100000. Nothing remarkable about that, except it was in 1969 in the middle of a flu pandemic where it is thought up to 4 million died worldwide.
This was the response when I put the same comment in the Leicester Mercury
“There are two main differences between now and then.
The first is population density the other is population mobility. Both of which were far lower then. Both of which have a l’âge effect on transmissibility.”
what the respondent failed to see is that the pandemic in 1968-70 should have been less than now if what he said was true.
And Leicester goes back into another extended summer lockdown on the back of fudged test results and made-up ‘evidence’ all blamed on the match being a super spreader… Funny how the match was played in Leicester and not London.
Is anything big happening in the next week or two that potentially needs covering up?