Premier League champions Liverpool are planning for “business as usual” ahead of the 2021-22 season with plans to resume selling season tickets in the new year.
The Anfield club, which announced in September it had abandoned season ticket sales for the current season with stadiums still closed, is now taking tentative steps towards planning for a return to normal arrangements for 2021-22.
With fans having recently returned to Liverpool’s stadium, Phil Dutton, Liverpool’s vice president of ticketing and hospitality, told the Liverpool Echo that the club is optimistic about the prospect of full stadiums at the start of next season.
“We will be looking to sell season tickets next season as usual,” Dutton told the Echo.
“We will take a look at it after Christmas regards what we do. I’m hoping that we are back to some sort of normality by August and September.
“If we are still talking about reducing capacities then, it suggests in wider society we have a much bigger problem.
“We are planning for business as usual next season – season ticket renewals, members sales, away tickets, the whole thing.”
Liverpool are currently able to welcome 2,000 fans to Anfield as the area is in Tier 2 of England’s COVID-19 restrictions. Supporters returned for the first time in nine months when Liverpool hosted Wolves on December 6.
The club is conducting a ballot for match tickets among season ticket holders and members. For the most recent ballot, for the forthcoming West Brom game, the club said fans had a one in two chance of being successful. Those fans who do obtain tickets are being encouraged to take a COVID-19 test either on the day of the game or the day before, although this is not a mandatory condition of entry.
Any supporters successful in a ballot who purchase a ticket will be excluded from entering future ballots until all other eligible supporters have been successful.
53,000-capacity Anfield last welcomed a full crowd for Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League match against Atletico Madrid on March 11, coming just before the first COVID-19 lockdown.