Norwich City Football Club has announced new guidelines for fans to follow in order to watch football at Carrow Road.

Alongside the other 19 Premier League clubs, the Canaries introduced the guidance after the government announced it had moved to Plan B as cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continue to rise.

Greg Pillinger, the club's head of operations and projects and covid officer, said it has tried to avoid the prospect of checking all fans on a matchday.

"With 27,000 fans coming to the stadium, we'd have needed fans to turn up four of five hours before kick-off and would have required hundreds of marshals," he said.

The club has been in discussion with other Premier League teams about how to avoid such measures.

"We have come to the agreement with the government that the home club will ask all season ticket holders, members and casual supporters who have purchased a ticket in the past two or three years to pre-register their vaccination details on their home club's database," added Mr Pillinger.

"If you can't pre-register then you should turn up with your lateral flow test (LFT) on a matchday where you can present the email or text message from the NHS and show that to the staff on the gates.

"Lastly - and hopefully we won't get to this stage - we withhold the right to deny entry to any fans who can't prove their vaccination status."

Mr Pillinger added that all Premier League clubs will adopt these practices and fans will be expected to follow the same procedure when attending away matches.

"When our fans go to Crystal Palace (December 28), or any future away games they will be under the same scrutiny and checks as home fans," he added.

"They will be requested to show their NHS pass by email or text proving they have done a LFT test within 48 hours of the fixture."

In order to make the process as easy as possible, Mr Pillinger said that the club is requesting fans to turn up a little earlier than their usual matchday routine.

"We know fans have their traditions but even arriving 10 minutes earlier than normal will greatly help Covid marshals and the club to get all supporters in safely."

The new rules are set to be rolled out ahead of the club's Boxing Day match against Arsenal at Carrow Road.