The Student Social

Ryan Brennan

10 months on from the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak and still fans have not been allowed into stadiums.

Since March of last year, not one fan has stepped foot into a stadium to see a game at professional level.

Instead, fans have resorted to watching the matches at home on their television screens, or for brief periods throughout the year, from their local pubs or restaurants. 

Now, 2021, and 10 months into wearing masks, sanitizing hands and keeping your distance, fans not only in Ireland but across the world wonder: when will fans be seen in stadiums again?

Whilst we have seen cases of Covid-19 go through the roof from the start of this year, there has been some positives to take.

 That being the rolling out of vaccines in hope that the majority of the Irish population will have their vaccine by September of 2021. In a public briefing from Micheal Martin, he expressed his hopes and desires to have half the population vaccinated by the end of June.

But where does that leave Irish sport for 2021?

There has been no new information available, on the plans of seeing fans back into the likes of ‘Croke Park’, ‘Aviva Stadium’ or ‘Pairc Ui Chaoimh’.

The ‘League of Ireland’ is set to return mid-March and the ‘GAA’ is set to return at the end of March.

The senior men’s Irish team is set to begin their ‘FIFA World Cup Qualifiers’ campaign towards the end of March.

All these plans in place but to say that there will be fans in attendance in order to support their team would be a very unlikely chance after the recent government announcement that the Level 5 restrictions would be in place until at least April 5th, with further review at that time.

With there being rumours that people will not be able to go abroad, attend concerts or sporting events without proof that you have been vaccinated, it does put a damper on things for those not planning on taking it. This comes with the speculation that, according to the BBC, the EU are being advised to put ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Passports’ in place.

Rumours circulating that the vaccine may cause fertility problems in women and sterilize both men and women add to those questioning the vaccine. On Ireland’s HSE website, it offers insight to the vaccine although a large area is covered by saying that there is not enough research done to have full knowledge of the side effects as not enough vaccines have been rolled out.

Would that mean due to fears over the vaccine that people may not be able to go on holidays or go to matches.

That will come in due course as the volume of people who have taken the vaccine will grow. 

For now, we live in a world full of uncertainty, whilst fans live in hope that they themselves can attend these games again without hesitation.

While there is serious doubt that the 2021 season will see fans in seats again or even sold-out stadiums, it leads to when will we see a sold-out stadium again with the ongoing pandemic.

For many, sport has brought a huge level of normality back in a year that has been quite the opposite to normal, but even getting to watch their favourite sides has helped a lot of people across the world.

Whether they are in the front seat of the stadium or the front seat of their living room, it is fair to say sport has made a huge impact on the wellbeing of many, and a positive impact at that.