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Liverpool's Anfield development 'temporarily halted due to coronavirus pandemic'

  /  autty

It is not just Liverpool's on-field plans that have been temporarily halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Jurgen Klopp's all-conquering Reds may be just six points from wrapping up the Premier League title in style, but with the suspension of football still firmly in force across the country, all the squad can do is keep fit and bide their time.

That 30-year wait for a league title will go on, but it surely won't be too much longer once football is safely permitted to return.

Elsewhere at Anfield, plans to move the club into the all-new Kirkby training base have taken a hit after construction on the grounds ceased at the back end of March.

Anfield officials had been confident that the new facility would be ready to open its doors to Klopp and his first-team stars later this summer..

But work at the base has now stopped and won't resume until safe to do so given the ongoing concerns over the COVID-19 crisis.

Plans that have not been overly impacted by the worldwide public health crisis, however, are Liverpool's aims of beginning work on their Anfield expansion later this year.

Around 7,000 additional seats are wanted with the majority to be sold as general admission. An outline of the number of those seats within the stand would be 5200, with around 1800 lounge and sports-bar style hospitality packages.

After reviewing all the feedback received around the plans to extend the stadium's capacity to 61,000, the next move was to submit planning application.

From there, Liverpool's City Council were due to consult on the plans in the spring with construction tentatively slated to begin later this year.

The club had remained quietly confident of opening up the new stand in time for the start of the 2022/23 season.

And while the pandemic is likely to have altered those goals somewhat, the timeline of the plans mean they may not have been blown completely off course by the global developments.

Related: Liverpool