Just when it seemed possible some daylight and common sense was back on the agenda after the Premier League ( EPL ) and Football League ( EFL ) announced a precautionary way forwards over Christmas. However, the Welsh Assembly announced strict measures due to Covid-19 and an alleged 163 Omicron cases in Wales yesterday.

Vaughan Gethin, the Wales Economy Minister found himself in the spotlight when on almost midnight yesterday he announced that sporting fixtures in Wales would not be attended by the general public. And that’s for the foreseeable future. Mr Gething said: “Sporting events over the Christmas period are one of the big highlights of the year. Unfortunately, the new omicron variant is a significant development in the pandemic and could cause a large number of infections. We need to do everything we can to protect people’s health and control the spread of this awful virus. Throughout the pandemic we have followed scientific and public health advice to keep people safe. The advice is clear — we need to act now in response to the threat of omicron. We are giving people as much notice of these decisions as we can. Crowds will come back as soon as possible. We want everyone to be here to enjoy their favourite sports.”

So that’s then, Swansea City would expect another attendance close on twenty thousand for their home game against Luton Town on the 29th December, a time when traditionally larger attendances are seen at all football matches. Apparently there is a three million pound fund available which we seriously hope is utilised in part to compensate the swans for the extreme loss of gate revenue, commercial losses and refreshment purchases.

Here’s some early reaction
Well thank you Mr Drakeford, and then hide behind midnight and send your sidekick out with news, pathetic. Rugby Fan (WOL)

So you can go to a crowded pub and watch sport, but you can't in the open air. Bizarre.There's Welsh league clubs with clubhouses overlooking pitches that you can watch the game from, but you're not now allowed to watch it on the touchline. Chief writing on Swansea Independent.

This descision is useless at best - what about concerts ( big crowds and in stadiums usually) then there’s gyms and swimming pools? Distancing at these events would make better sense ! Llanelli RFC fan ( WOL)

There will be a seriously negative reaction to this late night announcement, noticeably absent being First Minister Mark Drakeford. There seems as well to be no review time or timeframe for this ‘ruling’ leaving sports fans in Wales at a very special time to make new plans instead of attending games. We genuinely believed that the decision as to attend games or otherwise would be left to the adult population of the country, it seems not. We understand fully the need for caution, and for vaccinated people or negative tests to be checked before entering grounds. This has worked in recent times at Swansea City and no hot spots for COVID-19 have been reported post match at the Swansea.Com stadium. Not even a hint of a rise in cases or positive tests.

Many sports going folk will view this as another attempt by Drakeford to ‘be different’ when within half a mile of Wales border with England sports fixtures will go ahead freely. More on this later today, but let’s be honest this so called assembly ( last time I went to one I was in school, pretty apt ) has been determined for months now to invoke different rules on the people of Wales, and this is another example.

Artwork Swansea Independent

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