Ultimate sanction is to ban all fans

The London Stadium Safety Advisory Group (LS-SAG) have previously restricted the London Stadium capacity to 57,000 for the first two Premier League matches of Bournemouth and Watford.

However it is within their power to reduce the capacity even further in the coming days. ClaretandHugh understands that the LS-SAG, chaired by Newham Council’s enforcement officer, Sheila Roberts were previously concerned about a variety of issues including persistent standing, away fan segregation and fans  being allowed to drink alcohol in view of the pitch.

In light of the trouble at Bournemouth and Watford, the LS-SAG could impose further sanctions including reducing the capacity further of the London Stadium or possibly reducing capacity to zero banning all fans from matches.

That is what happened in Nottingham earlier this summer when Nottingham Forest’s City Ground was reduced to a capacity of zero after safety concerns were uncovered by an audit. The Championship club were later granted their certificate but the City Ground was reduced by 20% and licensed to hold 24,357 people – a reduction of 6,088 on their actual capacity.

This is not just an issue of future capacity growth and the LS-SAG have the power to significantly reduce the London Stadium capacity if they deem the stadium is unsafe.