Following Tuesday nights open letter from Laurence Jones, the FA's head of national leagues, stating that the ban of spectators at football games was to be extended to step 7 and friendlies, all of the Club's scheduled matches will be played behind closed doors until further notice. This includes Saturday's hosting of Gillingham which the Club had previously advertised would welcome spectators and open the bar and clubhouse, however following clarification from the Somerset FA the Club has reverted that decision.
Under guidelines released in previous week's, Chard had elected a Covid Officer and team to carry out risk assessments (which can be found under the documents section of the website) regarding the welfare of players and officials, the safety of spectators and bringing the bar inline with hospitality requirements amid the Coronavirus pandemic. That lead to numerous new measures being brought into place, on top of weeks worth of maintenance work done at the Club in recent weeks by many players and committee members.
The FA had previously stated that Clubs on the national League pyramid and those of feeder leagues at step 7 would not start the football season without spectators, with many clubs citing the cost to run without spectator income would leave them bankrupt.