EDDIE HEARN is hopeful that full capacity crowds are allowed to return to the UK by September at the latest. Matchroom are currently hoping to stage Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight collision with Oleksandr Usyk on September 25 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but full capacity “is a must”.
“I’ve just come back from Mexico, I was in Dallas a few weeks ago with 73,000. It’s depressing what we’re seeing over here to be honest with you. But we have to follow the rules,” Hearn said.
“If we don’t have a full crowd by the end of September we might as well pack up and go home. That includes the Premier League and all football because they will be butchered if the government don’t open up crowds for the new season. And obviously that date will fall in line with what we want to do at Spurs.”
Does Hearn believe that some sports are getting preferential treatment from the government?
“Yeah, always the way though isn’t it? We’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of test events with the snooker, we’ve also been denied stuff when we were told it could happen. But they’ve got to follow the rules and the science and it’s very difficult for anyone to make a balanced or correct decision with everything going on.
“But when you look around the world now, and our rate of vaccines, you have to say: You have to open up. It’s ridiculous now. You see cases rising, but hospital admissions not rising, everybody who is vulnerable becoming vaccinated… it’s very frustrating now that we’re doing shows all over the world with either full capacity or near-full capacities and we can’t get the same here.
“Fingers crossed September we’ll be good to go.”
