UK Government Lifts Restriction On Competitive Sports

Professional Sports events have been given the green light to return behind closed doors from June 1 by the United Kingdom government which has begun to ease the restriction on sports. 

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, Oliver Dowden, announced the 'stage three' guidance for lifting the Covid-19 lockdown, stating that live sport will return in the country from Monday and will be held in "safe and carefully controlled environments." 

The eased will allow professional sports like horse racing, snooker, darts, and cricket to resume active competitions from Monday, meanwhile, the Premier League clubs had already agreed to resume the 2019/20 season on June 17. 

"The wait is over. Live British sport will shortly be back on in safe and carefully controlled environments," said Oliver on Saturday. "This guidance provides the safe framework for sports to resume competition behind closed doors."

In the lead to this phase, the government had on May 25, announced that football clubs can resume close contact training sessions as part of the 'stage two' guidance. 

Oliver added, "It is now up to individual sports to confirm they can meet these protocols and decide when it's right for them to restart."

Just as in the Premier League, the FA Cup will resume also next month on the weekend of June 27-18 and the final date for the competition has also been slated for August 1.