Dom Telford celebrates after the Sky Bet League 2 match against Hartlepool United at Victoria Park, Hartlepool on Friday 12th November 2021. Pic: Getty Images

Welsh Government Told: £3m For No Fans Is Not Going To Cover It

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By Gareth James

Newport County chairman Gavin Foxall says a £3m Welsh Government support fund for sports clubs in Wales is not enough to cover the loss of revenue from playing games behind closed doors.

The club’s Boxing Day fixture at home to Forest Green Rovers was called off due to Covid cases in the visitors’ squad.

They travel to Leyton Orient and Walsall before back-to-back home fixtures against Salford and Harrogate next month.

“They’ve allocated £3m and that will be shared across all different sporting clubs but you’re covering everything there,” said Foxall.

“You’re covering all rugby clubs, you’re covering grassroots, you’re covering football.

“One of the big events in Wales over the festive period is the Welsh Grand National so it will cover that as well.

“We’re not expecting a great deal. Anything we do get will obviously be very welcome but we don’t know exactly how that will work and what that will be. That’s a view that’s widely held within Wales.

“Given the amount of teams there are in rugby and football and when you bring the other sports in as well we don’t think it is going to be enough.

“We will lose revenue over the festive period. We’ve put our bid into the Welsh Government and hopefully we’ll get as much of that back as possible.”

Cardiff City’s next home match is against Preston in the FA Cup on January 9 after their Boxing Day match against Coventry was postponed due to positive cases within their squad.

They are due to travel to Bournemouth and West Brom on December 30 and January 2 respectively, where Cardiff fans will be allowed to attend.

Bluebirds manager Steve Morison said: “We’re really frustrated but from our point of view we’ll have to put on a good a show as we can at Bournemouth and West Brom so the fans can go and watch.

“They [the Welsh Government] make their own decisions. You’ve seen Scotland have done something similar. They’re still allowing some fans in.

“Are the other governments going to get up to where Wales are? I don’t know. We have to get on with it unfortunately. It goes all the way down to grassroots so once you start to look properly into it you get more and more frustrated.”

All sporting events in Wales are limited to 50 spectators from Boxing Day due to the surge of the Omicron variant, although supporters are still allowed to travel and attend matches in England.

The different rules mean supporters of Swansea City and their Sky Bet Championship neighbours Cardiff, as well as League Two Newport, can attend their club’s away games but not home matches for at least the next three weeks.

Swansea head coach Martin, whose side are due to play at Millwall on Boxing Day, said: “We’re at a disadvantage by not having fans at home.

“We’re at a disadvantage financially. It’s affecting us already and it affects January.

“It will take a bit more working out from the people back at the stadium. Once they work all that out, we will pretty much know what we have to work with.

“But the landscape has already changed and I expect it will change again at some point.”

As Welsh clubs struggle to get to gr5ips with the changes, the Premier League is to hold two meetings on Thursday afternoon to discuss player welfare and fixture congestion.

One meeting will take place at 4pm with all Premier League managers and the other one is with captains and senior players.

Managers and players are concerned about the number of games they have to play in quick succession during the Christmas holiday period because of the demands it is putting on squads which have been reduced in size as a result of Covid-19.

They feel they are being put in an impossible position by being asked to play three games between Boxing Day and January 2. Premier League rules say teams have to fulfil fixtures if they have 14 fit players.

Liverpool were one of the clubs who spoke in favour of postponing one round of fixtures at the Premier League shareholders’ meeting on Monday but their call was not backed by the majority of clubs.

Players are unhappy that they have not been consulted more during the latest spike in Covid cases. They feel they should have more of a say about the demands which are being placed on them going forward.

Many managers also want the Premier League to allow them to make five substitutions during games. IFAB gave leagues the option of allowing five substitutes but Premier League clubs decided to stick with three.

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