PSV hopes that a limited number of spectators will be welcome at home games in the final phase of this season. Behind the scenes, the Eindhoven club is working on fully filling the Philips Stadium again, without visitors having to submit all kinds of mandatory documents first due to the corona virus. On Sunday against Feyenoord, the home base of PSV will still be empty, but nevertheless there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Commercial director Frans Janssen would rather not look back on the past year without fans at home matches of PSV. “I much prefer to talk about the future,” said the Thursday in conversation with it Eindhovens Dagblad. The director fervently hopes that a limited number of supporters will be welcome at the last three home games of this season against FC Groningen (April 24), sc Heerenveen (May 2) and PEC Zwolle (May 13). “What we especially hope is not that the government will only allow a part of the spectators in the last game. Then only a small part of the season ticket holders will benefit once and we will be faced with painful choices. Anyway, we will all continue to respect applicable rules “, says Janssen.
Janssen hopes that the cabinet will soon outline a ‘manageable perspective’ for football supporters in the Netherlands. “If the vaccines work and the government’s promise about them is fulfilled in the summer, we hope to soon be able to put this period behind us”, the hopeful PSV director continues. Harrie Timmermans, chairman of the PSV Supporters Association, also thinks that the return of visitors to home matches is very important for the club. “If the situation continues for a long time, there will still be a kind of detachment between clubs and some of the supporters. Watching football on television is completely different than in a stadium.”
Timmermans expects that the Philips Stadium will automatically fill up again if the government gives the green light for this later this year. “If we sympathize with as many as 26,000 season ticket holders even in corona time, shouldn’t that be okay later?” He wonders aloud. Janssen emphasizes once again how important the return to the old situation is. PSV compensates some of its season ticket holders for missed matches, which costs a total of 1.1 million euros. “Like last year, we didn’t want to ask for a refund from everyone wearing their hats because of canceled matches. People can now also compensate us by forgoing their refund and we really appreciate that, understand me. Good. But this time we will not put it at the top of the letter “, the commercial director concludes.