Football stadiums may not be full 'for 18 months' warn medical experts

Medical experts have warned that an effective vaccine for COVID-19 should be developed before football is played in front of packed stadia.

The Premier League remains suspended and the complex debate continues on how to bring the season to a safe and satisfactory conclusion.

Playing behind closed doors is one option and it's a scenario Dr Zach Binney, an epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, believes may have to continue for many months rather than just several weeks.

“The thing that people need to understand, epidemiologically speaking, is that every person you add to a gathering adds risk,” Dr Zach Binney said, speaking to The Times. “Five people is more dangerous than two, 10 is more dangerous than five, 500 is more dangerous than 10, 60,000 is very, very dangerous.

“Even if you have really low community-based transmission, it only takes a few people in that crowd of 60,000 for there to be a risk of something very significant happening.

“As a scientist, I hate to say I am ever 100 per cent sure about anything but I am as close to 100 per cent as I’ve ever been that we cannot return to filled-to-capacity stadia until we have a vaccine. Period.

“The best guess is about 18 months, could be a little more, could be a little less.”