Manchester City will play Tottenham in the Carabao Cup final on April 25 at Wembley; up to 8,000 spectators will be allowed to attend as the game will be used as a test event before the full return of fans to stadiums
Wednesday 14 April 2021 06:33, UK
Manchester City and Tottenham will each be given 2,000 tickets for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley and supporters will need to provide proof of a negative lateral flow coronavirus test within 24 hours of the match.
The remaining 4,000 tickets for the game on April 25 are to be split between groups including Brent residents and NHS staff.
Fans will need to send off for a PCR Covid-19 test to take at home as close as possible to the game, and take another test within five days after the match.
They will also need to travel to a lateral flow testing site for a further test before the match.
Proof of a negative result from that lateral flow test would be needed to gain entry to Wembley and also to access either of the public transport options being provided for travel to London from the north-west.
City confirmed that 1,750 of their tickets would be made available to eligible supporters based in and around Greater Manchester, with the remaining 250 for qualifying fans based in London and the Home Counties.
For the 1,750 travelling down, there would be 750 standard and first-class train ticket spaces, 750 coach spaces and 250 car parking spaces.
The trains and coaches will be chartered exclusively for the use of Manchester City supporters, the club said.
The match will be the first outdoor sports event with supporters of the teams involved in attendance this year.
The FA Cup semi-final between Leicester and Southampton will welcome in 4,000 spectators but these will be a mixture of local residents and key workers from the area around Wembley.
It is expected that a similar system of testing will be implemented for that match as well.
SpursAbility, Tottenham's disabled supporters' club, said in a statement released to the PA news agency that it was "extremely disappointed" at the decision to bar clinically extremely vulnerable fans from attending the final.
"A number of our members and supporters will fall into this classification under recent Covid-19 guidance and have also endured long shielding periods," the statement said.
"However, most of them will have had their first and second vaccinations and are at considerably lower risk than those who are yet to be vaccinated.
"Government guidance places those aged 70 or over at an equal or higher risk category yet there is no exclusion issue for anyone in these higher risk groups.
"The policy adopted for this match is a direct discrimination toward many disabled supporters including those with access requirements based on a direction with no scientific evidence to back up this approach and there is no longer a Government requirement to shield."
The statement continued: "At the moment a CEV person who has had the coronavirus and recovered and has subsequently received two vaccine doses is a considerably lesser risk and excluded, compared with a 40-year-old who may well have unknown health issues - who has received no vaccinations and therefore is a greater risk and is welcomed with open arms. Is this fair and reasonable?
"We ask that this criteria in the Government-led research programme for re-opening live events to the general public be reviewed in terms of actual research to date and the reality of the priorities in the Government-defined vaccination programme."
