Spain-Portugal football friendly to have fans in stands ahead of Euro 2020

Around 20,500 fans will be allowed to attend Spain’s friendly against Portugal on 4 June with restrictions in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus, local officials said Tuesday. Capacity at Atletico Madrid’s 68,000-seat Wanda Metropolitano stadium will be limited to around 30 percent and fans will have to wear face masks, the health department of the regional government of Madrid said in a statement. Fans will not be allowed to smoke, eat or drink in the stands and will have different times set to enter the stadium to avoid crowds, it added. The match will be one of the first major professional sports events to be held in the Spanish capital with a live audience since the start of the pandemic. Spain has been hit hard by COVID-19, recording nearly 80,000 deaths from around 3.6 million cases, and Madrid is the region with the most fatalities. But infections and deaths have been declining as the country’s vaccination programme speeds up and the government has started to relax virus restrictions. Earlier this month the government gave football clubs the green light for fans to return to matches for the final two rounds of fixtures this season in regions with low levels of infection. The game will serve as a warm-up for the delayed Euro 2020, which gets underway on 11 June.