Hope for English football club straddling Welsh border that faced being banned from having crowds
There is hope for a ‘pragmatic solution’ to the English football club that faced being banned from having crowds because its stadium straddles the Welsh border.
Chester FC is facing being driven out of business after Wales launched a Covid crackdown on it for breaking the nation’s crowd rules.
The club was warned they may have breached Welsh coronavirus regulations when they hosted crowds at two matches over Christmas and new year.
The National League North club’s Deva Stadium is on the border of England and Wales, with the front gates and main office in England but the pitch in Wales.
Mr Drakeford has announced that he will be in talks with Welsh Government officials, the club, police and local authority.
Most of Chester’s stadium is inside Wales but some of the main stand and the car park are in England. Sporting events in Wales currently have to be played behind closed doors
On Friday Wales doubled down on level two measures — which have been in place since Boxing day and include the rule of six, mandatory face masks in all indoor setting and a night club ban.
Professor Robert Dingwall, a former Government Covid adviser, said Omicron in Wales was ‘driving an increase which is not really being contained by these extra restrictions’.
Mr Drakeford told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: ‘I’ve already asked my senior officials to have discussions today with the police, with the club, with the local authority that owns the ground, the Chester local authority.
‘I’m sure there is a sensible pragmatic solution here but doesn’t mean that the club is placed in jeopardy, but doesn’t result in the law being broken either.’
Chester’s home matches against Fylde and Telford on December 28 and January 2 were attended by crowds of 2,075 and 2,116 respectively.
The club, which considers itself England and has a registered address in England, are now seeking legal advice.
Chairman Andy Morris told the PA news agency last week: ‘As a club we rely on gate receipts. If the enforcement is we have to play behind closed doors, we are not a Welsh club, so we are not entitled to the financial support.
‘The entire future of the club could be in doubt. There is no financial support for English clubs playing behind closed doors at the moment. It could be the end of the club.
‘I don’t think there is any clear jurisdiction in terms of which rules apply but we have been acting within English legislation since the stadium was built in 1992.
‘While acknowledging the border runs through the stadium, the club, for 30 years, has been treated as English with the registered address in England.’
Official data show Covid cases in Wales and Scotland are increasing faster than in England despite the nations’ harsher restrictions
Chester have been told they may have to play matches behind closed doors following a potential breach of Welsh Covid rules
Chester FC chairman Andy Morris told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘In the last couple of days, we’ve been contacted by Flintshire Council on the request of the Welsh Government, and they’re the people who now have said it’s a concern.
‘But for the rationale of why this has come about, I’m not really sure as to why it has become an issue.
‘It hasn’t been for the last two years whilst we wrestled through Covid, we haven’t had access to any Welsh Government support, Welsh funding or anything like that, yet all of a sudden we seem to have become a political football.’
He continued: ‘We are a fan-owned club, so the way we operate is financially sustainable.
‘We don’t operate with debt, we can’t take on loans, we don’t have an overdraft, we don’t do anything like that.
‘So we rely on match day incomes, it’s one of our most valuable sources of income.
‘So what we’re finding now is if we are forced to play behind closed doors for a sustained period of time, that could mean the end of the football club.
‘It’s a really serious situation and it’s one that can’t be taken lightly.’
The club has announced it has been informed by authorities of the potential breaches and that it risks more by hosting further games in front of fans.
A statement from the club on Friday read: ‘This morning Chester Football Club was invited to a meeting with representatives of North Wales Police, Flintshire County Council, Cheshire Police and Cheshire West & Chester Council.
‘During this meeting, the club was given a joint letter on behalf of North Wales Police and Flintshire County Council which outlines potential breaches of Welsh coronavirus regulations at our fixtures on December 28, 2021 and January 2, 2022.
‘It also states the club may commit further potential breaches if it continues to play home fixtures with crowds while the current restrictions in Wales remain in place.
‘We were informed this was based upon direction from the Welsh government that the premises of Chester Football Club are governed by the Welsh regulations. The Welsh government was not represented at the meeting.
NHS figures released today show there were 13,045 beds occupied by coronavirus sufferers on January 4, of which 4,845 were not mainly sick with the disease. It means only six in 10 inpatients are primarily ill with Covid now compared to more than 80 per cent with Delta
Experts say there is reason to believe that incidentals will continue to rise as the variant pushes England’s infection rates to record highs, with one in 15 people estimated to have had Covid on New Year’s Eve
The share of so-called ‘incidental’ cases was even bigger in Omicron hotspot London , where 45 per cent of ‘Covid patients’ were not primarily in hospital for the virus
Pictured above is the % change in infection rates in England over the week to December 26 (left), and January 2 (right)
Chester, who play in the sixth-tier National League North, are seeking legal advice. Pictured: The gates are closed at the Deva Stadium, home of Chester City Football Club
‘It was agreed that all parties would seek further legal advice given the complex issues and future implications of any outcome.’
Professor Dingwall told The Daily Telegraph: ‘What I think can be reasonably said is that all of the extra interventions put in place by the Welsh government really do not seem to have had any impact.’
He added that cases are soaring in parts of France ‘which have a lot more restrictions, but are also having big waves of Covid, especially in the major cities.
He said: ‘Omicron is so infectious that actually nothing you do makes much difference’.
But Mr Drakeford branded England an international ‘outlier’ in resisting tighter curbs and accused the PM of overseeing a ‘politically paralysed’ administration that had tied his hands.
He used a press conference to insist that Wales’ tough Covid restrictions on bars and mass events must stay in place due to an Omicron ‘storm’ breaking over the nation.
As the rest of the UK eases restrictions he warned of ‘a difficult month ahead’, despite admitting that the variant may not be as severe as previous waves.
But then, in a rant at Mr Johnson, he added: ‘In England, we have a Government that is politically paralysed, with a Prime Minister who is unable to secure an agreement through his Cabinet to take the actions that his advisers have been telling him ought to have been taken.
‘And even if he could get his Cabinet to address them, he can’t get his MPs to agree them.
‘The outlier here is not Wales. Wales is taking action, as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland, and as are countries right across Europe, and right across the globe.
‘The one country that stands out as not taking action to protect its population is England.’
Indoor events of more than 30 people or outdoors events for more than 50 people are not allowed in Wales.
The Government said it is also encouraging people to take extra steps to keep safe including limiting the number of people they meet who they do not live with, to flow before you go, and meeting people outdoors wherever possible or in well-ventilated spaces.
Anyone who tests positive must self-isolate for seven days. They should then take a lateral flow test on day six and day seven. If either test is positive they should remain in isolation until two negative lateral flow tests or after day 10, whichever is sooner.
Confirmatory PCR tests for asymptomatic Covid sufferers have been scrapped from Thursday, health minister Eluned Morgan announced this week.
Unvaccinated contacts of positive cases who are self-isolating for 10 days will now be asked to take a lateral flow test on day two and eight instead of a PCR test.
PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers and under 18s will also end between January 7 and 9 bringing the country in line with the rest of the UK.
The above are the 25 areas with the highest Covid infection rates in England. In London, Havering has the biggest outbreak but nationally it is the 38th highest Covid infection rate
Graph shows: Covid infection rates across England’s regions up to January 2, Department of Health data shows
Map shows: vaccine uptake across England’s 300-plus local areas, with darker colours indicating a higher proportion of the population that has got a booster. Uptake is lowest in London
People will instead need to take a lateral flow test (LFD) on day two and, if positive, a follow-up PCR test to enable genomic sequencing to be carried out.
There will also be no need to self-isolate until a negative test has been received. The requirements for non-vaccinated travellers remain unchanged.
Mr Drakeford said 994 people with Covid are being treated in Welsh hospitals — a rise of 43 per cent compared with last week and the highest number since last March — while around 40 are in critical care, the majority of whom are unvaccinated.
He said Omicron is putting significant pressure on the NHS, due to rising hospital admissions and staff absences, but denied it is ‘overwhelmed’.
The latest data from Public Health Wales shows another 38 people have died from coronavirus. However, Mr Drakeford said those are likely to have been from the Delta variant.
Meanwhile, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M) said the North East and North West of England are seeing the most ‘concerning’ rates of the Omicron variant.
Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick, told Times Radio that cases are ‘slowing down’ in London but scientists need two weeks to see if this continues.
He added: ‘Most other parts of the country are about two to three weeks behind where London is in their epidemic profile.
‘Particularly concerning is the North East and the North West — if you look at hospital admissions in those two regions they are going up, also the Midlands, where I live, that’s also a little bit concerning, so it is a worry.
‘On the slightly more positive side, so it doesn’t sound all doom and gloom, what we are seeing from hospital admissions is that stays in hospital do appear to be on average shorter, which is good news, symptoms appear to be a little bit milder, so this what we are seeing consistently with the Omicron variant.’
Dr Tildesley said the Omicron variant could make Covid endemic.
He said: ‘The thing that might happen in the future is you may see the emergence of a new variant that is less severe, and ultimately, in the long term, what happens is Covid becomes endemic and you have a less severe version.
‘It’s very similar to the common cold that we’ve lived with for many years.
‘We’re not quite there yet but possibly Omicron is the first ray of light there that suggests that may happen in the longer term.
‘It is, of course, much more transmissible than Delta was, which is concerning, but much less severe.
‘Hopefully, as we move more towards the spring and we see the back of Omicron, we can get more inter-relationship of living with Covid as an endemic disease and protecting the vulnerable.
‘Any variant that does emerge which is less severe, ultimately, in the longer term, is where we want to be.’
