WESTMINSTER Council has blocked plans to set up a fanzone for thousands of ticketless Scotland supporters heading to London for the Euro 2020 clash against England.
The Tartan Army was given an official allocation of 3200 tickets for Friday’s match at Wembley, though as many as 20,000 Scots are expected to make the trip south.
The London mayor, as well as Scottish and UK government ministers, has urged supporters to stay at home amid concerns about coronavirus infections.
Traflagar Square, the traditional gathering place for Scotland supporters in London, is hosting a socially distanced fan park for the city’s key workers.
The only other fanzone in the city, next to Tower Bridge, has a capacity of just 1200 people.
Scotland supporters had hoped to secure access to an alternative site so they have a "safe" place to watch the game.
However, Westminster Council has rejected a request from the mayor’s office to open a new fan zone in the city specially for the Scotland game, according to the Guardian.
Paul Goodwin, of the Scottish Football Supporters Association, told the paper the decision would put people off travelling. “People understand what the pandemic was about and are rightly still concerned,” he said. “There’s nowhere to congregate and that’s part of what makes the trip: that good-natured bravado is best done as a collective.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan urged ticketless fans to stay away.
He said: “Scottish fans are renowned around the world for bringing a party atmosphere with them to the big tournaments but with Covid restrictions still in place on both sides of the border, the best thing for fans without tickets to the game or a safe place to watch it is to enjoy the game from Scotland and not come to London.”
The message was reiterated by Scottish Culture Minister Jenny Gilruth.
She commented: "I strongly urge fans to only travel if you have a ticket or a safe place to watch the match from. Although we have made great progress, we all still have an important part to play in making sure we keep the virus under control. So I urge all football fans to plan in advance how you are going to safely enjoy the tournament."
UK sports minister Nigel Huddleston said the UK Government continues to "advise fans without tickets to enjoy the match close to home and not travel to London unless you have somewhere already finalised to watch the game safely".
Just over 20,000 fans will be allowed inside Wembley for the match and less than 1000 in the Trafalgar Square fan zone.
The office of the London mayor said it is not possible to arrange a separate screening in the city to accommodate large numbers of fans from Scotland under current Covid-19 restrictions.
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