The Spanish health authorities and region have agreed to reduce capacity at football stadia to 75% due to the coronavirus pandemic. Indoor arenas such as basketball halls can now only hold 50% instead of 75%.

The Spanish health authorities have decided to reduce the capacity of sports grounds due to the sixth wave of COVID-19. It will be a maximum of 75% in outdoor stadia and 50% in indoor ones. However, some regions such as the Basque Country have decided to allow only 50% even in football grounds.

Just three months after allowing full grounds and 75% at basketball arenas, the omicron variant of coronavirus has led to it being reduced.

The sharp increase in cases in clubs has caused the postponement of several basketballs and futsal matches and even football’s return after the winter break could be affected.

There have already been requests to postpone matches such as that of Rayo Vallecano’s trip to Atletico Madrid due to Rayo’s numerous COVID cases while Tenerife briefly halted ticket sales for the Canary Islands derby with Las Palmas due to a possible reduction in capacity.

The banning of fans from sports events has been in place in Germany since last month while Belgium and Wales also do not allow supporters. Scottish stadia are reduced to 500 people while the Netherlands, in lockdown until 14th January, has behind closed doors football. Football could well go behind closed doors in England soon as well.

As well as this measure, the quarantine period for those who get COVID-19 as well as unvaccinated close contacts has been reduced from 10 to seven days.

TodayNG