Danish Superliga matches could run at significantly increased capacity for the remainder of the season after authorities deemed three trial matches with 500 spectators per section a success.
The DBU, Danish football’s federation, the Danish Sports Association and the Superliga held the three matches in order to assess whether certain COVID-19 mitigation measures would be feasible moving forwards for the remaining seven matches of the 2019-20 season.
The National Police, Danish Serum Institute, the Danish Agency for Patient Safety, DBU and the Divisional Association evaluated the trial games and found contact tracing and clustering supporters into sections to be feasible.
The evaluation also said increased-capacity games could go ahead with other measures in place, such as having controlled and managed spectator travel in separate sections, as well as one-metre of physical distance between spectators and contact information for contact tracing.
Denmark has a limit on gatherings of up to 500 people as it gradually reopens following closures due to COVID-19, which FC Copenhagen earlier this month aimed to circumvent by submitting a plan with 21 sections of up to 500 supporters throughout its 38,065-capacity Telia Parken. FC Copenhagen’s ticketing partner Roboticket has been involved in the plan to host 10,500 fans.
However, with the new one-metre rule replacing the former two-metre rule this week, FC Copenhagen could expect to welcome up to 15,000 fans, while Brondby and Aarhus could see up to 10,000 each.
Claus Thomsen, director of the Divisional Association, said: “We are extremely pleased with the progress of test matches and evaluation. It has been a fantastic collaboration and we believe the process has shown that we are able to execute as agreed.
“We can section, identify and secure infection detection at a very high level in a controlled spectator journey. Therefore, we are confident that we can safely increase spectator capacity further – and the goal is to get back to something that is close to normal spectator capacity with the start of the coming season.”
Image: Guillaume Baviere
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