Portsmouth's Wembley return in serious jeopardy with season set to move behind closed doors

Fans are set to be stopped from attending Premier League and lower-division games with the government ready to introduce a string of measures to combat coronavirus, according to a report in The Times.

That has massive implications not only for the League One season, but the Blues’ Leasing.com Trophy final with Salford on April 5.

Pompey have already sold more than 50,000 of their 53,000-ticket allocation for the final, with an extra 5,000-10,000 seats ready to be made available for sale.

The Blues have yet to receive any guidance from football’s authorities on the next steps, although it’s being reported a crisis plan will be rolled out when there are over 500 cases confirmed in the UK. The current figure stands at 460.

The season is not set to be postponed, however, but no games will be allowed to be shown in pubs, according to The Times report. It adds there is no desire to lift the broadcast ban in place for Saturday 3pm kick-offs.

There is concern in EFL about the impact stopping fans from attending games will have on clubs’ finances, although Blues chief executive Mark Catlin yesterday stated the club are in a position to cope with the financial knock-on effect.

Games have already been moved behind closed doors in countries such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany along with many European fixtures.

In France, that will remain the case until April 15 with La Liga today suspending their fixtures, for at least the next two match days.

Questions were yesterday raised about Pompey’s squad coming into contact with Arsenal’s players, after they self-isolated.