Coronavirus: One rule for the reckless, another for sports fans | Simon Carter

Thanks to our inept government, I have no idea when we will be able to enjoy sitting or standing in the freezing cold watching a dismal 1-0 home defeat again.

The same applies to fans of all professional clubs now the pause button has been pushed on the pilot events, and all because of a virus which recently wasn’t in the list of top 10 causes of death in the UK and which is so deadly that more than 99 per cent of the people who catch it make a full recovery.

When will Pompey fans next be able to rock up at Fratton Park and boo their team off, shouting ‘Jackett out’ at regular intervals? Will Kenny Jackett still be in charge when our government allows us to attend games again? Who knows?

Who knows anything these days, in these weird and frankly not wonderful days in which we are existing. Not living, we don’t do that any more. We exist.

Yes, there are more important things in life than attending football matches or other major sporting events, I appreciate that. But we need to put that in context. There are more important things in life than going to a pub or eating out in a restaurant as well, but we can still do those things (before 10pm).

The ban on allowing football fans into grounds at ‘elite’ level – which covers Havant & Waterlooville in the sixth tier of the pyramid all the way up to the Premier League giants – is worthy of further comment.

Havant director Trevor Brock, speaking to The News last week following the bombshell news regarding the return of crowds, said three words which I guess have been used by many people since early March.

‘Logic escapes me.’

Indeed. There is no point looking for logic in a lot of the government’s response to the pandemic. Needles and haystacks come to mind.

Next Saturday Havant host Horsham in the FA Cup. Because they are classified as ‘elite sport’ – because they pay their players – the tie will be behind closed doors. A few miles down the road Gosport Borough can admit 600 fans for their FA Cup tie, because Borough play a division lower than Havant and are classed as ‘non-elite’ by the powers-that-be.

This is the scenario – Gosport could play Havant at Privett Park in front of 600 fans, but the same two clubs could not play at Havant in front of the same 600 people. Slough Town (‘elite’) groundshare with Langley (‘non-elite’). If Langley had been drawn at home to Slough, some fans would have been allowed in. If Slough had been drawn at home, it would have been behind closed doors. A farce.

And a worrying one too, as those ‘elite’ non-league clubs are due to start their competitive season next weekend behind closed doors. Clubs at that level, as Brock explained, might play at ‘elite’ level ‘but we don’t have elite funding’.

Havant could well stream their matches if the current ruling does not change. That could mean some fans could watch the game (indoors) on TV at the Westleigh pub, but they would not be allowed in the ground just a few metres away (outdoors) to watch it in person. Another farce.

‘Elite’ sports clubs are not irresponsible, not like the pub in Portsmouth last week that offered pints of snakebite for £1.50 and was rewarded with a huge, snaking, non-socially-distanced crowd outside the venue. That was a disgrace, a kick in the guts for everyone involved in sport who has worked damned hard in recent months to make their grounds Covid-safe – only to be kicked in the guts by the government last week.

So, again, let me get this right... it’s OK to huddle together outside a pub waiting for cheap drinks but no Hampshire cricket supporter – not a single one – was allowed inside a 20,000 capacity Ageas Bowl stadium this summer to watch their team play.

You and five friends could go to a pub and watch a Pompey game live on BT or Sky, but you and your mates could not sit in the same ‘bubble’ in an executive box at Fratton Park and watch the same game.

Now talks are ongoing as to who should be providing financial help to clubs like Havant & Waterlooville. Who should pay? Brock believes the Premier League – with its television deals measured in the billions – has a ‘responsibility’ to the lower leagues. Others insist the government should offer a rescue package, in the same way it has given the arts and culture industry about £1.5bn.

No doubt those who don’t like sport would argue why the state should bale out football clubs, but then this is the society we now live in – everyone has to complain about something. Theatres and concert venues are worth saving, but so are our community sports clubs. You can’t argue which should receive preferential treatment.

At the moment though, our theatres remain empty and our ‘elite’ sports stadia also. And – guess what I’m going to write next? – all while our pubs remain open. I have nothing against pubs, I’ve spent a large fortune in them down the years, but at least they can still open their doors, they can still make money.

It is right they remain open so long as those who use them are responsible. Cricket fans would have been responsible had they been allowed into The Ageas Bowl this year, and they would have had lots of nice fresh air as well. It might surprise some to learn that football fans can be responsible too. It’s not 1985 any more, you know. I’ve been to a few non-league football games recently and I haven’t seen crowds huddling together like the one pictured outside the Astoria pub in Portsmouth last week.

But, according to our government, that’s OK. Want to drink yourself senseless indoors? Go ahead, help the economy. It’s disgusting beyond belief to then see sports clubs punished with possibly no crowds for six months. While the reckless throw pints of cider and lager down their necks, the sensible are denied doing what they love.

Oh well, while I wait to be allowed back into my team’s stadium, I’ll just have to take up grouse shooting...