English Football League: Fans to watch fixtures at Cambridge United as test events

Cambridge United finished 16th in League Two last season

Supporters will be allowed back into two games in English Football League competitions next week as test events.

Cambridge United's home matches with Fulham Under-21s in the EFL Trophy on 8 September and the League Two game with Carlisle on Saturday, 12 September are part of the government's pilot scheme.

The club's Abbey Stadium will allow 1,000 fans for the EFL tie and 2,500 for the league game.

Cambridge has been chosen for both fixtures to allow quick "learnings".

An EFL statement said: "Appropriate measures have been applied at the Abbey Stadium, with both terraces and seating arrangements available.

"As a result of two fixtures taking place at the same venue in a short period of time, it will allow for any learnings to be implemented quickly under the same conditions."

Cambridge have previously been part of a joint project by the EFL and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) looking at safe application of social distancing at football grounds.

That work was overseen by crowd dynamics experts Movement Strategies, who will also assess the pilot scheme.

The Premier League season is set to start on 12 September but, as it stands, no fans will be admitted to top-flight matches before October at the earliest.

A limited number of supporters were allowed to watch Brighton's friendly with Chelsea on Saturday, which was also used as a test event.

On Wednesday, the Rugby Football Union announced plans to allow up to 20,000 fans into Twickenham to watch England play Barbarians on 25 October.