Don't go it alone… Premier League and EFL want a Covid passport scheme that all clubs can use

Covid passports must be accessible to all clubs in English football, league officials have told ministers.

The EFL, Premier League and FA, among a host of other major sports, came out firmly in favour of Covid passports last week.

Ten sports bodies, including, football, motor sport, tennis, cricket and rugby have written a joint letter to the country’s political leaders to press the case for Covid passports, pointing out it is the only way to return to capacity crowds.

The Premier League followed that up by painting a bleak picture of what football will be like for fans next season, with small crowds, no away fans and no access to food and drink, if ‘covid certification’ is not put in place.

But how any scheme will be implemented is another matter.

Sportsmail understands that the Premier League and EFL are favour of an approach that is based on the NHS app or a centralised government system, which all clubs could tap into.

Any system has to be as usable at the bottom of League Two as it is at the top end of the Championship, or throughout the Premier League.

However, the government has said businesses can install their own Covid passport scheme, which raises the prospect of one club with the technology installed hosting a capacity crowd, while a rival can only admit 25% of stadium capacity because they don’t have the system in place and fans have to socially distance.

Clearly, a large crowd would bring an advantage.

The government’s events research programme is designed to establish how these systems would work.

The series of pilot events includes the FA Cup final at Wembley on May 15, which will be played in front of 21,000 fans, who will have to show Covid passports

But the technology is already up and running and available through private companies, which are in discussion with individual clubs and sports.

Covid passports are in use in the Premier League this season to control access to the so-called ‘red zone’ within stadiums – the area around the pitch – which is restricted to 110 people under coronavirus protocols.

And that could quickly be scaled up to bring back capacity crowds.

‘Technically, it’s possible,’ said Avi Lasarow, chief executive of Prenetics UK. ‘We are doing it currently.’ 

Lasarow anticipates that large-scale events – in sport, business and culture – will make use health passports in the coming months, with the permission to enter even encoded on wristbands.

Where football fans are concerned, test results, vaccination status and a person’s level of immunity, measured through an antibody test, is likely to be uploaded to an app, or a chip-and-pin photocard, and scanned on the turnstile.

Lasarow is quick to point out any use of Covid passports to ramp up attendances has to be part of the wider approach set by Government, but he believes the private sector could be a key part of the solution and help accelerate the process.

And time is short. Cricket, tennis, the British Grand Prix, not to mention the next Premier League and EFL seasons, need a solution quickly if they are to have significant crowds this summer.

Prenetics, which supports a range of industries with testing and digital health passports, has been asked by venues if it can provide its technology for pilot events, which it will do if required and free of charge.

‘There is a real place for private companies to play a role [in a wider roll-out],’ said Lasarow.

If no central system is established, companies could become government-approved providers in the same way they have for testing for cornavirus.

In discussions with the Cabinet Office, Prenetics has stressed the importance of ‘inter-operability’, which means approved companies’ technology would integrate with each other or central systems.

Despite widespread political opposition to Covid passports, which has centred on concerns about civil liberties, there is little doubt in industry or sport that they are the only way to have large crowds at events in the short and medium term.

Without them, they say, crowds will have to be socially distant and capacities will be limited to around 25% of available seats.

‘In the end, for a certain period of time we will certainly need some form of passport to get into venues,’ said Irwin Armstrong, chief executive of CIGA Healthcare and a leading member of the UK’s Rapid Testing Consortium, whose company has supplied antibody tests to Government.

With estimated losses of £2 nillion in English football, due to the impact of Covid, clubs are desperate for fans to return. 

Manchester United, who saw their matchday revenue dropping to just £1.5m for the months of October, November and December, down 95.5 per cent compared to last year, told Sportsmail it fully supports the letter from sporting bodies to political leaders.

‘In the interests of getting as many of our fans back safely, our team at Old Trafford are ready to align our operations with the conditions that are required by the Government and the football authorities,’ added Collette Roche, chief operating office at the club.

‘If the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown remains on track, we hope to be able to welcome back fans to Old Trafford at a limited capacity for the final home game of the season, and potentially at greater numbers next season.’

‘We will do that by doing what we have done throughout the pandemic – by consulting and communicating with our fans, our partners and our local authorities.’

Without covid passports the Premier League does not expect to increase fan numbers beyond 25% capacity, with all the implications that has for the viability of clubs, not to mention the experience of going to a match. 

Premier League executive director Bill Bush told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme last week: ‘The alternative (to certification) is not freedom. The alternative is social distancing, tiny crowds, major restrictions on people’s movement and ability to eat, drink, travel. Away fans banned for example.

‘So, to end those restrictions of freedom, we believe that something like this is an acceptable burden to give fans the freedom to attend.’