No new restrictions on Scottish stadium capacities but Nicola Sturgeon insists cases will be judged 'very carefully'

Nicola Sturgeon insists ‘very careful’ consideration will be made regarding potential stadium capacities in the coming weeks as the spread of Covid-19 continues to rise in Scotland.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon addressed the issue of football crowds at her press conference on Tuesday. Picture: SNS

The First Minister addressed the nation at a Tuesday press conference a day after 3,189 new cases were confirmed north of the border.

She revealed there would be change at the present time to restrictions concerning crowds at sporting events in stadia. Crowds of 5,000 are allowed outdoors. If clubs wish to allow in more fans then they need permission from the local authority, which have been regularly accepted in the past two weeks with capacity crowds returning to football matches for the first time since March 2020.

However, Ms Sturgeon warned that outdoor events are not risk-free and councils should be fully determining the suitability of each and every application before granting permission.

She said: "On the issue of capacity in stadiums, as you know we still have a capacity limit over which there is an approval process which events organisers have to go through.

"That's a limit of 5,000 outdoors and 2,000 indoors.

"Obviously for football matches with full stadiums it has to go through that process and these are decisions that local authorities largely are taking the lead on – I'm not going to pre-empt any decisions that may be taken for events coming up over the next period.

"Obviously outdoor events give us less concerns than indoor events but they are not risk-free and with cases rising I think everyone can expect that those decisions will be taken very carefully indeed."

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