Norwich City’s return to action without fans is just a week away but encouragement about spectators being allowed back into stadiums this year may be emerging in Spain.

Football is being allowed to return this month but behind closed doors, as part of government guidelines for the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Canaries are due to complete their Premier League campaign before the end of July, if all goes to plan, with regular testing of top-flight players and coaches bringing just 14 positive results from the 7,474 published so far, or 0.2 percent. Those who test positive have mostly been asymptomatic but have still had to isolate at home for seven days before being tested again.

However, the La Liga season resumed in Spain this week and there are hopes that some fans could be allowed back into stadiums before the campaign is concluded.

League president Javier Tebas is hopeful of 10 percent to 15pc of stadium capacities being allowed beyond June 29, when the Spanish government’s next phase of recovery from Covid-19 is due to begin - ahead of the domestic season finishing on July 19.

“The pandemic is on a sharp decline,” Tebas told the Guardian. “The return to stadiums would have to be coordinated by the ministry for health and the Consejo Superior de Deportes (Spain’s sports ministry), and it is obviously not going to be the whole stadium.

“If we can get 10pc, 15pc this season we would be very happy. It would be part of that ‘normality’; it is important that fans start to return.”

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It’s also being reported that plans in Spain are for next season to begin in mid-September with 30pc of capacity - with similar plans reported as part of football’s return in Italy.

The Mirror has recently claimed that in England the Football Association is exploring the possibility of having 20.000 fans at Wembley for the FA Cup final on August 1 but only if the coronavirus infection rate was below 0.5.

So it seems that unless that becomes reality and City reach the FA Cup final, the earliest potential return of some Canaries fans to matches is currently looking likely to be the start of the 2020-21 season.