English side Carlisle United have announced they are working around mandatory Covid rules set by the UK government for any crowd of 10,000 people or more – by reducing their stadium capacity to 9,999.
On Tuesday, Boris Johnson’s Conservative government announced further restrictions, called ‘Plan-B’, designed to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 after a significant uptick in cases since the strain was first discovered in southern Africa in November, with MPs passing legislation which mandate that Covid certification should be checked in some areas of England from Wednesday.
The strengthening of restrictions has proved unpopular among large swathes of the country, with Johnson even being forced to fight off a revolt from dozens of backbencher Tories who voted against the move.
The restrictions are poised to hit football grounds across the country – but one team who have signaled that they won’t be required to comply is EFL side Carlisle United, who revealed that they have reduced their stadium capacity from 17,949 to 9,999 as long as the system is in place.
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This essentially means that any fans who attend games at their Brunton Park ground won’t be required to show proof of vaccination to gain entry as part of a move that will limit capacity to 6,000 seats and 3,999 standing fans.
By contrast, all venues with a capacity of 10,000 or more are forced by the legislation to require football fans to either present a valid NHS Covid pass which displays a negative lateral flow test from the previous 48 hours or proof of full vaccination.
It has also been suggested that the terms for ‘full vaccination’ may soon be amended to include a ‘booster’, or third shot of a Covid-19 vaccine.