Celtic could be forced to play matches in front of a greatly reduced capacity next season.
A report in The Sun carries a headline about half-empty grounds but the reality of applying the 2 metre rule could see grounds 90% empty.
According to an article by Ferco who were involved with installing RailSeats at Celtic Park each seat in 500mm wide meaning that only one in every fourth seat could be occupied. If that is also applied to rows the 60,000 capacity would be decimated.
Covering the development, The Sun reports:
One SPFL insider said: “It’s a major quandary – how you get people back into grounds when the restrictions are lifted. As things stand, the days of crowds of 50,000 at Ibrox and 60,000 at Celtic Park aren’t going to happen.
“From what the government are saying, we could have social distancing for another 6-12 months, which would mean people sitting three or four seats apart next season to adhere to the two-metre rule.
“There are a host of things to consider for when we are up and running again. What about turnstile queues? What about stewards doing body searches? With all due respect to them, it’ll be okay at Elgin and Albion Rovers.
“Even a club like Hamilton Accies, with 1500 fans in a 6000- capacity stadium, will be less affected by this than many.”
The 2-metre ruling could be reduced but a restriction on capacity is just the latest issue that football clubs will have to deal with in these unprecedented times.
UEFA seem to be insisting that the 2019/20 season is completed but under the current circumstances matches would have to be played in empty or near empty stadiums.
Lifting the Saturday 3pm ban on live telly matches would go some way towards giving fans access but the home crowd is one of the main attractions of Celtic Park matches. Watching games played out in front of 10,000 carefully spaced fans around the ground would be a very different experience.