{"id":592,"date":"2020-09-09T23:08:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T23:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/premier-league-chief-fans-must-return-as-quickly-as-possible\/"},"modified":"2020-09-09T23:08:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T23:08:37","slug":"premier-league-chief-fans-must-return-as-quickly-as-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/?p=592","title":{"rendered":"Premier League chief: Fans must return 'as quickly as possible'"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Premier League chief executive Richard Masters wants fans to quickly return to stadiums, with clubs participating in the 2020-21 season risking a \u00a3700-million loss.<\/p>\n

Supporters are currently not allowed into top-flight matches until October, BBC Sport’s Dan Roan understands. However, ESPN’s Rob Dawson reports Manchester United are exploring the possibility of playing in front of a reduced 12,000-person capacity for their home opener against Crystal Palace on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n

“We have to get back to fans inside stadia as quickly as possible – that’s the big thing that’s missing, economic or otherwise – we need fans back inside stadiums for all sorts of reasons, and it’s the number one priority,” Masters told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

Master claims Premier League clubs have already collectively suffered a \u00a3500-million shortfall since English football returned behind closed doors in June.<\/p>\n

The government <\/span>selected a<\/span> <\/span>friendly between Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea on Aug. 29 as one of several trial events for the gradual return of spectators. Around 2,500 socially-distanced fans watched the two Premier League sides contest a 1-1 draw at The Amex.<\/span><\/p>\n

GLYN KIRK \/ AFP \/ Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the Premier League’s plan to bring back supporters took a hit when the UK government announced restrictions <\/span>on gatherings of more than six people, beginning on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It doesn’t lower our ambitions – it just means that we’ll have to adapt – it’s one thing we’ve shown over recent months, we’re able to adapt to the situation,” Masters said.<\/p>\n

“We wait to see what the government decides, and we’ll remain in dialogue with them throughout,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“We always knew September was going to be a difficult month at the start of the return to normality the government was talking about, and so we should anticipate bumps in the road.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters wants fans to quickly return to stadiums, with clubs participating in the 2020-21 season risking a \u00a3700-million loss. Supporters are currently not allowed into top-flight matches until October, BBC Sport’s Dan Roan understands. However, ESPN’s Rob Dawson reports Manchester United are exploring the possibility of playing in front of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-premier-league"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballvoyage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}