Leeds United reporter for The Athletic Phil Hay has revealed on his podcast that there is little expectation that matches will be played in front of crowds when football returns.
What did he say?
The football season has been suspended since early March, with Leeds sat top of the Championship table nine games from the end of the campaign.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side have a seven-point buffer to Fulham in third place, but Hay said that it is unlikely fans will be able to attend matches when the season restarts.
According to The Guardian, plans are underway to start playing matches again in June in order to complete the season, although Hay told his podcast that these matches are likely to be played behind closed doors.
“I obviously keep in touch with Leeds regularly about this and there is literally no expectation on their part that if and when the games start, that they’ll be anything other than behind-closed-doors fixtures,” he said.
“There’s simply no expectation at all at the moment that you’ll be able to have crowds in the stadium, certainly to begin with.”
Disappointment
While fans will likely be relieved to hear that the league intends to get the season underway eventually, the prospect of Leeds securing promotion to the Premier League behind closed doors is a depressing one.
Leeds last played in England’s top-flight back in 2004 and just missed out on promotion last season, so fans will have been desperate to be there for the final games of this season and witness the long-awaited return to the Premier League.
