Pompey opinion: Why fans’ campaign must not be forgotten

But it’s important not to forget the need to keep the #LetFansIn campaign going in the background.

Clearly there’s not going to be much progress with it at present.

We’re lucky to have elite football still being played, and the non-elite game is just going to have to wait until Covid rates ease up, hopefully soon.

But when football does come back I can see the need for more campaigning to speed up the process to get clubs back to being allowed full grounds.

I’ve written to my MP, Gosport Conservative Caroline Dinenage, a couple of times on this and she passed on my latest missive, which impressed the need to keep the pressure on, to sports minister Nigel Huddleston.

That correspondence came just before the new tougher lockdown restrictions came in across the country, but I’ve now had a reply from Joseph Downing in the ministerial support team.

Among other things, he says: ‘We will continue to work closely with a whole range of sports to understand the latest thinking that will allow spectators to return when it is safe to do so. This includes the creation of a new Sports Technology Innovation Working Group of sporting bodies and health experts to analyse new technologies that might support this.

‘This will supplement the draft government guidance, and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority supplementary guidance to their Green Guide, which has been internationally welcomed.’

I intend to keep up the little bit of pressure I can exert and the more fans that do the same, the quicker we’ll all be back in our seats.

Then I can happily return to writing about Pompey XIs all called Trevor!