Manchester United have today put pressure on the government to let fans back in to stadiums. We had initially been told that we could return to watch our team in reduced capacity from October and while people are allowed to be indoors at the cinema, in restaurants on planes, watching the football outdoors is still prohibited.

When Manchester City travelled to London to play West Ham supporters were not allowed in to the stadium but the match was being shown at a cinema down the road. Across Europe we’ve seen fans inside the ground but still fans in England are being denied to watch live football in person.

Collette Roche, Manchester United Chief Operating Officer, has revealed that the club had put rigorous plans in place to make Old Trafford as safe as possible for fans when they are allowed back and are ready for the government to lift restrictions.

We were really disappointed when the government decided not to allow fans back in the stadium in October because we’ve got everything in place to make sure we can do so safely. We’ve got all the COVID security measures and other processes ready to go. We spent around two months working with the government guidelines to develop the right processes and measures to make sure that we can have around 23,500 people in this stadium safely social distancing.

It’s quite bemusing to understand why people can gather in other settings such as on an aeroplane or a restaurant, or even in a cinema to watch football, when we know we’ve got the plans and the process is ready to deliver a match day here safely. The government gave us guidelines and it’s those guidelines that we have followed. I’m convinced that would be able to do so safely.