Help force Boris to make next Monday a positive day for Pompey fans

Pompey fans were back inside Fratton Park for last December's win over Peterborough - when will they be back again? Picture: Joe Pepler

This last shutdown seems to have gone on forever and I don't mind repeating something I've said before – thank goodness we’ve had ‘elite’ football to follow.

Many businesses and interest groups are pushing the PM to allow this, that or the other in the near future and I wish them all success.

My own lobbying centres on sport and, in particular, the #LetFansIn campaign.

Whatever Johnson does or doesn’t say on Feburary 22, he MUST state that grass-roots sports teams can start to train and play again very soon – and that includes those in youth sport, for whom the lockdown has gone on longer than is good for kids and longer than is necessary.

And as well as letting all our local football and rugby teams get back to what they know, Johnson MUST - in my view - say that fans will be allowed back into stadiums - at elite and non-elite level - very soon.

In the case of non-league football, playing and having a crowd go hand in hand. One without the other doesn’t work. And pro clubs need the fans back too.

I’m not necessarily saying the government has been wrong to shut down grounds during the time when the pandemic has been as its worst, but I don't think they’ve given enough weight to arguments for letting fans back into open-air arenas where I’d think the risk of Covid spreading is lower than in shops, for example.

The clubs need the fans back. The fans need to be back – in many cases for their own mental wellbeing.

Is it too much to ask that, for example, Pompey can have 5,000 in by mid-March and 10,000 by the end of the season? I don’t think so.

So, between now and next Monday, do your bit. Tweet, shout, write to your MP (which I’ll be doing again). Do something. #LetFansIn has a way to go as a campaign. Our voices HAVE to be heard.