English football fans will return to Wembley in the League Cup final Coronavirus pandemic News

About 8,000 people – all tested for COVID-19 – were in the stadium to watch Manchester City win Tottenham Hotspur.

It seemed like an old time on Sunday when 8,000 people at Wembley beat Manchester City to Tottenham Hotspur in the English Football League Cup final – the COVID-19 pandemic started more than a year ago at a UK sporting event.

As part of the UK Government’s Event Research Program (ERP), the final was being used as a pilot event to test the safe return of fans.

And while the 2,000 fans allowed from each club, plus its 4,000 residents, seemed a little lost in the wide expanses of the 90,000-seat stadium, the sound they heard in their voices was encouraging.

The stadiums in England have been silent for more than a year, apart from a brief window at the end of last year, before the small crowd was allowed to recover the COVID-19.

The match has been worrisome as fans have been forced to watch from the couch at home with artificial pumping effects created to create a feeling of normalcy.

But the sounds of fans singing songs at Wembley offered hope for better times as the spread of vaccines in Britain continues to reduce deaths and infections caused by the virus.

City fans were put in a corner while they were at the other end of Tottenham. The game was also attended by 4,000 locals and NHS staff.

To enter Wembley, fans had to undergo a side-flow coronavirus test 24 hours before the match 24 hours before the game and had to test for a negative result.

They also have to do two PCR tests at home: one before going to the game and another five days later.

‘Massive inequality’

When people gathered outside the stadium, it was a good mood as some rival fans gathered to protest the now doomed European Super League.

City and Tottenham were two of the six English clubs that announced their intention to join six Spanish and Italian giants last week to form a new league.

Once the old rituals began after a rigorous interpretation of the national anthem performed by 92 NHS staff, they began on Wembley’s giant video screens.

As has been regularly repeated this seismic week for the sport following the Super League fiasco, the game is nothing without fans.

The two sets quickly returned to the old slot.

The announcement of the next starting line-up was whistled by the opposing fans, but a loud speech was thrown at the opposing players and match officials as the match began.

Aymeric Laporte’s header closed out the victory for City and the fans hid the corner players when they handed the trophy to captain Fernandinho. After the dark months of the last year, he was overjoyed.

It was clear to the City players what that support meant when they joined in singing the club’s Blue Moon anthem.

City midfielder Riyad Mahrez summed up the atmosphere.

“They made a huge difference, they were an amazing 8,000 and we hope to have more again,” he said.

For Tottenham supporters, however, it was another disappointment and a continuation of the 2008 trophy drought.

With around 21,000 fans expected in next month’s FA Cup final, Wembley expects to have at least 22,500 this year in the eight Euro 2020 matches it will host this year.