According to the Times, Arsenal Women’s game away at West Ham on Saturday, 12th September has been earmarked as part of the plan to slowly re-introduce fans into football grounds. Matches have been played behind closed doors across most of the globe since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the globe in March.
As part of the plans to slowly re-introduce socially distanced crowds at professional games. Initially the WSL clash between Manchester United and Chelsea on September 6th had also been earmarked but a spike of cases in Manchester mean that West Ham Women v Arsenal will be the sole focus of the WSL pilots. The FA has been keen to use the WSL as a testing ground due to the lower, more docile crowds.
Under the plans, 1,000 will be allowed into Dagenham & Redbridge’s Victoria Road Stadium, where the Irons have moved for the upcoming season. West Ham have yet to officially confirm the reports or how tickets can be purchased and who by.
Meanwhile, the West Ham game has been chosen for live coverage on BT Sport on Saturday, 12th September kicking off at 5.20pm. In any other country, you can watch the game for free on the FA Player app. The Gunners opening game at home to Reading on Sunday, 6th September has also been chosen for TV coverage in the UK and will be shown on BBC Online and the Red Button, kicking off at 12.30pm. The match will be played behind closed doors and, again, outside of the UK will be available to watch for free on the FA Player app.
Hopefully this works out well. Go Arsenal.
soon as Bayern starts dishing out 8 goals free of charge, some idiot or group of idiots will intentionally break the rules so everyone can miss out again. Same applies to heated derby games.
when Elneny scores a hat trick from the centre, the spurs fans will decide enough is enough for everyone enjoying their games from the stands.
The women’s games might be calm and orderly though.
What?
I’m not sure, but I THINK he’s talking about people unhappy withtheir team’s performance deliberately breaking social distancing rules in order for the other team to no longer be allowed to have fans inthe grounds … bit of a stretch, that.
@Tim
Thanks for the update.
Apologies for going off topic, but after listening to your bit on the FT podcast, I wondered if you know of any plans to bring back Lotte Wubben-Moy?
The Gunners have their work cut out as Harder will now by joining an already powerful Chelsea squad and ManCity have added two U.S. NT midfield starters plus the best outside back in the game, and I think two other U.S. women’s NT starters are joining ManU. Arsenal made some nice additions but not quite up to the level of some of these rival signings.