Rangers fans could finally get back into Ibrox to see Steven Gerrard’s Scottish Premiership champions start the defence of their crown next season – but away days may be on the back burner for a while longer, according to National Clinical Director Jason Leitch.
Fans have been locked out of grounds since March 2020 with supporters missing the entire season so far this term, although small numbers could be allowed in to the Playoffs to bring the curtain down on the season.
With 12,500 fans set to be allowed into Hampden this summer for the Euros, fans are hopeful they will be able to get back in significant numbers to see their side, with Rangers fans desperate to be at Ibrox for flag day.
Leitch has given some hope that will be possible but it seems that anything close to a return to pre-Covid normality still seems like it is a long way off.
When asked directly if fans could be back in grounds for the start of the new season, Leitch responded positively but added plenty of caveats t
“I think yes, although I cannot guarantee it for obvious reasons,” Leitch told Off The Ball.
“But the present plan to get to Level 0 – and Level 0 isn’t the end – by the end of June (before the season), we are saying already that knowing what we know we can have 2,000 people seated outdoors in stadiums, 400 indoors.
“You can then apply to your local authority or the Scottish Government to have a bigger event.
“If you want 12,5000 at the Euros you have to ask for that. You have to show your plan, say what you are going to do with Scot Rail and the subway, etc etc.
“But with a fair wind, if the numbers keep going in the same direction, and we don’t go crazy, just open from that baseline gradually in the next couple of months I think there will be fans in stadiums on the opening day of the season.”
Leitch accepts, however, that it will be easier at first to admit home fans than an open sale.
“I can imagine ths start of the season it being like that [some home fans only] to allow everyone to get used to how things work. To get the one-way systems working, to make sure the car parks are safe.
“If I was in charge of a club I would be thinking this is a big change, this is everyone coming back, we must make sure we do this correctly.
“So it is still not open ticketing like he would love to go back to. But thinking over the whole season, it depends what happens in the winter.
“And the winter is a little bit of an unknown for us in terms of the virus, we will probably need more vaccination over the winter we will probably have a little bit of a surge in the virus globally.
“But I can imagine a scenario where we start with home fans, move to away fans who we know then maybe later in the season we start to get that more open access for everybody.”
In other news, Pundit backs Rangers star to win shock spot at Euro 2020 after stunning performances
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