In the absence of official confirmation, which is expected to be given today after the unscheduled Governing Council meeting this afternoon, next Sunday's derby match between CD Tenerife and UD Las Palmas at the Heliodoro stadium in Santa Cruz, will either be played with a substantially reduced capacity or behind closed doors with no fans present.
A change in stadium and sports arena capacities is something that is waiting for an announcement and confirmation, at both the national and regional levels. Yesterday afternoon CD Tenerife announced on its website that it was "temporarily" suspending the sale of tickets for the first match of its centenary year, an indication of what is to come.
While waiting to find out the possible health measures that will be adopted regarding sports events at a professional level, the club is already preparing for the possibility that they will only be allowed a capacity between 20% and 40%, which is between 4,800 and 9,600 fans, if any are allowed at all.
This comes as a huge blow to the club and fans after the box office had registered normal activity in the last few days, with tickets being sold to both season ticket holders and the general public.
"CD Tenerife will continue to inform its subscribers and fans in a timely manner in relation to the first match of the centenary year and the mandatory access protocol to the Heliodoro Rodríguez López Stadium, in accordance with current health regulations", the statement said.
Las Palmas has not released the 700 tickets that it had in advance for the match precisely for this reason, as travelling fans will be left with ferry, plane, and hotel bills if they can’t travel, so the club wanted to know what limitations were in place first.
Although the possibilities of restricting capacity were being studied, the authorities have already indicated against allowing the public in a derby that was going to have an attendance of several thousand spectators, thus contravening the prevailing recommendations against the spread of Covid.
Both the president of the Spanish Vaccination Association, Amós García, and the director of the Canary Islands Health Service, Conrado Domínguez, have recently expressed this. And yesterday the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, also warned that "in the football and basketball leagues the current situation of public attendance cannot be maintained", in reference to the contagion rates.
Both clubs have requested an official decision either way as soon as possible so that they can manage it accordingly with required protocols.
