Luton Town will not be able to welcome fans back to Kenilworth Road for the match against Derby County, despite the EFL naming them as part of a ten-game pilot project to get crowds back this weekend.
The club responded to a statement from the league this lunchtime, calling it ‘very disappointing’ that they were only informed minutes before the news was released, despite chasing the governing body for a response this morning.
The Hatters were one of the first to respond to an EFL email yesterday asking for volunteer clubs to participate in a ‘return of fans’ pilot programme, which would see 1,000 supporters allowed in for games.
Town were named as one of three Championship fixtures selected, but the late nature of the decision means they now do not have the necessary time to prepare for supporters to return to Kenilworth Road for the first time since February, before the Coronavirus shutdown of football.
A Luton statement read: ‘On Tuesday at around midday, having received an email from the EFL asking for clubs to volunteer to take part, we put ourselves forward. We responded within the hour because, like many clubs, we are desperate to have our supporters back inside Kenilworth Road.
‘To stage a game with supporters here would take a lot of preparation time, and unfortunately, despite asking again from very early this morning, we had heard nothing from the League until a few minutes before they issued their statement stating that we were one of the clubs taking part.
‘Sadly, this does not give us enough time to get ready so we are unable to host spectators here for the Derby match.
‘We understand that the EFL are beholden to DCMS, but to request clubs to offer and then not back up quickly, knowing there is such little time to prepare, is very disappointing and we are sorry to disappoint supporters who may have raised hopes of attending Saturday’s match.
‘We remain committed to working with the EFL, DCMS, SGSA and local authority to getting our wonderful supporters back inside the Kenny as soon as is safely possible.’
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