AFC Fylde chief supports rumoured crowd restrictions for football's return

The Coasters owner says the idea of clubs being allowed to fill their grounds to one-third capacity when the 2020/21 campaign begins has been mooted.

In the last of his video interviews for the club website for the time being, Haythornthwaite addressed the issue of next season and the mooted crowd restrictions.

He said: “Everyone is trying to get a date for when football starts again and, critically, for when football starts again with crowds.

“It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to start without crowds in non-league.

“They are talking about clubs being allowed to have one third of their capacity.

“In our case, that will allow us to have 1,600 (capacity is 4,800 until the new stand is finished).

“I said straightaway: ‘That’s perfect for us. We never get more than 1,600, so that would be great’.

“If it’s going to happen with one-third of (maximum) crowds in the leagues above, there’s no reason why non-league can’t start with crowds.

“The big clubs with massive support, like Portsmouth and Sunderland, won’t be happy. It certainly won’t affect us.

“I don’t think there are going to be any away fans for obvious reasons and I’m not quite sure how you keep the social distancing.

“It’s quite easy to do with seating but I’m not sure they’ve thought it through with standing.

“So it’s a bit of a ray of sunshine. It means we are going to start renovating the pitch and might have to start looking at players earlier, but we have to be cautious because you can’t jump the gun.”