It has been that three ‘top’ Premier League clubs are currently ‘in talks’ over having cardboard cut-outs of fans in the stands when the season resumes.
If it all goes ahead, we could be seeing £20 recyclable and water-proof cut-outs placed in stadiums up and down the country when action resumes in June.
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Some of the money that will be raised is expected to be donated to the NHS in the fight against coronavirus.
The idea all started from German fan Ingo Muller, who incredibly organised almost 14,000 cut-outs of fans and season-ticket holders for Borussia Monchengladbach.
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As seen in photos popping up all over social media, the cardboard cut-outs went live to the world when the Bundesliga side took on Bayer Leverkusen at the Borussia-Park on Saturday.
How does it work? Fans can send a head-and-shoulders photo to a special app and then it can be printed on life-size cardboard cut-outs and placed in the stadium.
Muller, 51, told SunSport: “It was my wife’s idea. We should have played at Eintracht Frankfurt two months ago. The match was suspended.
“We were in quarantine in Berlin. I was sitting in the kitchen, complaining, whining about the fact I couldn’t watch football on a Saturday afternoon.
“My wife said: ‘Ingo, get a picture taken of yourself, put it in the stadium and somehow if there are matches without public you are there, supporting the team.’
“I thought about the concept for an hour or two. We talked with club officials and the following week they generously said: ‘The lawn is ours, the stadium is yours.’
“We expected 500-2,000 cardboards at the beginning. Now we are looking at 20,000 orders at €19 (£17) over the next few weeks.
“As soon as the fans can go back to the stadium, we will throw a huge party and then they can pick up their own cardboards and keep it as a memory.
“On one hand, I’m proud the idea is working. It’s a symbol of protest that we are here but we cannot be here. We’re against matches without the public.
“Jock Stein used to say, ‘Football is nothing without fans.’ And this is what we feel, too. I’m sad I cannot be there, screaming my guts out, supporting my team.”
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