Coronavirus: Gary Neville outlines concerns over Premier League games being played behind closed doors

Fans grouped outside stadiums before European leagues were postponed

With football leagues and organisations waiting to see the development of the coronavirus pandemic before restarting action, one suggested solution has been to play games behind closed doors.

In principle the idea has merit; those staff and players who must be inside the ground could have health checks in advance, ensuring only safe and legitimately required contact is made between people.

But in practice, there’s a very real danger of shifting the congregation of supporter from inside to outside the stadium, particularly heading toward the end of the season as most European top flights are.

Speaking to BBC Radio Five Live, Gary Neville explained the problems which could arise with playing behind closed doors.

“I said no on this about four weeks ago because I felt that it takes away from the essence of football,” he said.

“I also feel that the EFL clubs and National League clubs, non-league clubs would suffer too much from the revenue loss which would force them to go under.

“I think at the moment the idea of behind closed doors idea has to come only after the health priority.

“My concern with behind closed doors football at the moment are: ‘Will fans turn up outside the stadium? Will fans congregate outside the stadium if their team can get promoted or relegated or if they get into Europe?”

Even before the current postponement of league play, there were games played behind closed doors—only for fans to turn up in their thousands to welcome the players to the ground and make noise to support their team in a local area, even if not from the stands.

This was particularly observed in the Champions League and Europa League second legs which were played at the time.

Moving toward the end of domestic seasons, the same issue would arise with potential titles on the line—and that’s even before considering the additional workers who would be asked to deal with the knock-on effects of having people gather outside the stadium.

“How are we going to stop that? How are the police going to man it?” Neville continued.

“How are the health services going to react to incidents that occur on the back of it? Do we need to put any more pressure on the services?

“There are a lot of things we have to contemplate before we even consider behind closed doors games. However, if those fears can be overcome, somewhere down the line over the next 12 weeks or so, then maybe that could be the case.”

All football in England is postponed until the end of April at the earliest, while Spanish football authorities stated on Monday they were postponing games indefinitely.