Banning spectators from sport shows a lack of moral fibre

It’s like a country dance: two steps forward, one step back and so on. Live sport is returning patchily, though live spectators are still prohibited. How much sense does this make? When the improvised county championship, alias the Bob Willis Trophy, was at last permitted to get going, there was a plan to admit a small number of spectators at a couple of grounds. A little spike in reported Covid-19 cases provoked panic and a right-about-turn. The same command scuppered the plan to allow a few thousand people to attend the last day of Glorious Goodwood. Meanwhile, not that many miles away from Goodwood, the beaches were thronged. So were London parks less than an hour’s walk from The Oval from which spectators were barred. Evidently a day at the races or the cricket posed a risk to the nation’s health as a day on the beach or even waiting at Heathrow for your holiday flight didn’t.

If you find this discrimination makes any sense, you are qualified to be a Government minister or adviser.

English Premiership rugby has returned this weekend, which is very welcome. The grounds will of course be spectator-free, which is just as unwelcome. Spin the globe and look at New Zealand. There the Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament, improvised like the Bob Willis Trophy, as a substitute for the four nation Rugby Championship, has been played successfully before live crowds, permitted because New Zealand was all but free of the virus. There has been a little cluster of cases in Auckland this past ten days, but there is no suggestion that crowds at rugby matches have been responsible for transmission of the virus. On Sunday the last match of the tournament is due to be played. More than 43,000 tickets have been sold.

Throughout the whole sorry saga here in the UK, judgements have been made on assumption of risk rather than evidence. The last Six Nations matches in the Spring were on the weekend 7/8 March, England v Wales at Twickenham, Scotland v France at Murrayfield, full houses both. The following week the Cheltenham Festival went ahead, with the attendance in six figures.Whatever evidence there may be that the quarter-million or so spectators at these three events contributed to the spread of Covid-19 has never been published, probably was never gathered. But there isn’t, I think, evidence of any great spike in Ireland as racegoers returned from Cheltenham or in the south-west of France, the country’s rugby heartland, as spectators came home from Edinburgh.

The following week England’s match in Rome was called off early because the virus was then raging in Italy (though not actually in Rome) and the danger of passing through busy airports was recognized. The Wales-Scotland game in Cardiff was called off at the eleventh hour when fans from both countries were already in Cardiff and thronging the bars. So there was perhaps as much danger of infection and transmission in the city centre as there would have been if the game had gone ahead.

Lockdown followed, and for months all sport was banned. When it was timidly allowed to return, football, racing and Test cricket took place behind closed doors. This was better than nothing and in any case more people watch sport on TV and other devices than actually go to the ground or the racecourse.

As lockdown was eased inconsistency of what was permitted and what forbidden was evident. Fear and some small evidence of a second spike made politicians jittery. Decisions to permit limited spectatorship were, as I’ve said, abruptly reversed, with no cogent reason being advanced.

Then in Scotland this week we have touched absurdity. There is a small cluster of Covid cases in Aberdeen. Last Saturday after a poor performance against Rangers eight Aberdeen players foolishly went drinking in a city centre bar. Common sense would say this was a matter which could, and indeed should, have been dealt with only by their employers as a breach of discipline. But no; it became political.

The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has, some think, had a good epidemic, had to intervene and did so in her most tiresome schoolmarm manner. Aberdeen’s next match, perhaps matches, must be postponed.Then a Celtic player broke bounds and went briefly home to North Africa. Ms Sturgeon shot through the roof. Celtic’s next game was also off. This, she said, was a yellow card; any more misdemeanours and she would be fishing in her handbag for a red one and the return of football to Scotland would be brought to an immediate halt.

One couldn’t but think of the late Bruce Forsyth and his catchphrase “I’m in charge”. One didn’t know whether to groan or laugh. Consider that crowded bar in Aberdeen. It has been closed again now of course, but what of the other customers who were drinking alongside the eight footballers? One assumes that a number of them went back to work on Monday, and while some will have been traced and tested, and the city has again gone into lockdown, there is no suggestion that their employers should be further penalised as football has been, no threat of a red card for them.

It would be nice to think that Sturgeon’s over-the-top bossiness will have cost her a few votes.

Meanwhile several indoor sports such as badminton, basketball, squash and gymnastics are still prohibited, even for adolescents who are, according to all the evidence, among the least susceptible to the virus. Is this ban necessary? Does it even make sense?

Naturally we are wary of the “second wave”. But the wariness is leading to strange decisions. Organized sport , where it is possible to take precautions, is banned, while unorganized physical activity in close proximity to others is okay.

As for the return of spectators, one can see that there is a case for restricting the size of crowds so that the precious social distancing can be practised. But it’s hard to see that sitting watching cricket, football or rugby in a ground only half-full is any more dangerous than travelling by train, bus or aeroplane, or than congregating in a bar. After all, you could keep the stadium bars closed and even require spectators to wear masks. But, for the Lord’s sake, let them in, some of them anyway.

New Zealanders don’t seem to have found it impossible or terribly risky to return to normal and allow fans to attend matches. Perhaps we lack their moral fibre. Indeed there’s probably no “perhaps” about it.