FA Cup final could see 20,000 fans at Wembley

A final decision on the size of the attendance for the FA Cup final at Wembley on May 15 is yet to be made

The FA Cup final and World Snooker Championship will be among a group of sporting and cultural events used as pilots to test the large-scale return of spectators to venues.

The Government announced plans for a pilot programme to begin in April when it set out its road map in February for the easing of coronavirus restrictions, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has now provided more detail, saying there will be “around a dozen” events serving as tests in total

The FA Cup final on May 15 is the most high-profile of these events and Sky Sports News has been told that discussions centre around an attendance of up to 20,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, which would be considerably beyond the 10,000 limit for larger outdoor seated venues set to come into force in step three of the road map on May 17.

The pilots form part of the Events Research Programme (ERP) and will inform Government decisions on step four of the road map, which will begin no earlier than June 21 when it is hoped spectators will be able to get back safely and in large numbers. The idea is to test a range of sporting and cultural venues, from Wembley on one hand to a 200-capacity comedy club on the other.