Yesterday, Wednesday, the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health System made the decision to reduce capacities of attendees at sporting events to 75% at open-air stadiums and 50% at indoor venues, something that will affect the highly anticipated Canarian derby between CD Tenerife and UD Las Palmas at the Heliodoro Stadium on Sunday.
Fans have been waiting eagerly to find out what percentage, if any, would be allowed to attend as figures of 20%, 40%, and even none have been talked about.
However, it is not certain yet that there will be 18,000 allowed at the stadium that this 75% represents. The new reduction will take effect from Saturday, January 1st, and will be in force until at least the 31st when it will be reviewed again. But this decision must be ratified today by the Canary Islands Government, since each region has the power to further reduce that amount.
It would be strange for the Canaries, chaired by Ángel Víctor Torres, to go against a decision that has been made at the national level and that affects a professional competition. In fact, the Minister of Health of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, said this week that he wanted to wait until Wednesday for a "consensus" to be reached regarding the figures that will be handled from now on at major sports.
In the same way, the vice president of the Canary Islands Government, Antonio Olivera, said yesterday that, "the logical thing is that the decision does not stray too far from the criteria of the Inter-territorial Health Council".
If the 75% capacity is respected, the Heliodoro could host around 18,000 fans this Sunday, which is the 10,000 season ticket holders plus the 6,000 fans who have already bought their tickets within the deadlines established by the club itself. The club's chairman, Miguel Concepción, also released a statement yesterday afternoon, with which he confirmed that the presence of 16,000 people is guaranteed, except at the discretion of the regional government. This means that if 75% is ratified, CD Tenerife could reopen its ticket offices to sell 2,000 more tickets.
No Las Palmas fans:
Other measures adopted by the Inter-territorial Council, affect the movements of rival fans. The Minister of Health once again insisted on the preference that the public at these events be local, to avoid unnecessary travel.
If this is fulfilled, there would be no Las Palmas fans in the stands of the Santa Cruz Stadium this Sunday. Las Palmas has 700 seats at its disposal to sell to its followers. In this situation, tickets would normally be returned to the club for home fans to buy instead.
The Gran Canaria club has always advocated playing this match behind closed doors, as stated by the club's president Miguel Ángel Ramírez, who has not spoken or put the tickets on sale provided by CD Tenerife. Many believe they want this to take away the home advantage for CDT.
It has also been confirmed by the Minister of Health that the mandatory use of masks at these events continues, so does the prohibition of smoking, eating and drinking, as was already established even when one hundred percent of the public were allowed in football stadiums.
Friday’s matches can have 100% capacity:
All these measures will come into effect on January 1st, however, this Friday, December 31st, four games are being played, so they will have 100% capacity. One of them is from the First Division, Valencia v Espanyol, and three are from the Second Division: Real Oviedo v Ponferradina, Burgos CF v SD Amorebieta, and Eibar v Real Sociedad B.
