Culture secretary Oliver Dowden and FA chief executive Mark Bullingham are both hopeful that “some fans” will be able to return to football grounds at the start of the new season, which is currently pencilled in for September.
Speaking at yesterday’s daily Covid-19 briefing, Dowden said: "I would really hope that by the return of the new season we might be in a position whereby some fans could start to return to stadiums.
"I know that would be another important part of restoring the financial position of clubs.”
He added that the "outdoor element” of watching football meant that supporters could be allowed into stadia sooner than audiences are permitted to return to theatres and other indoor venues.
Bullingham told The Guardian that the FA takes a similar view: "When we look ahead to September, we are hoping we are in a very different situation than we are now as a country, and we hope at some point we can start having crowds back.
"We’re looking at loads of options; we’re even getting people to map out what traffic flows [of spectators] look like in stadia, explore what it could look like with one-metre, two-metre social distancing and so on.”
He added that app-based "digital passports” are under consideration, aimed at showing that supporters are not infected with Covid‑19 utilising the Government’s testing programme.
While a September start for 2020/21 is the current target - either behind closed doors or with the hoped-for limited crowd - a number of clubs in Leagues One and Two are understood to want to wait until supporters are able to attend games en masse, which is likely to be in the new year.