COLCHESTER United chairman Robbie Cowling has confirmed they will release more tickets for their prestigious friendly with Spurs - providing Prime Minister Boris Johnson next week confirms the unlocking of restrictions.

The U's will play host to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, July 21 at the JobServe Community Stadium, kick-off 7.45pm.

Colchester will begin selling tickets for the game tomorrow (Thursday) but will do so under the current Covid-19 protocols in place.

That is likely to restrict the capacity for the game to around 3,500 fans.

Spurs fans will be allocated around 800 tickets in the North Stand at the Community Stadium, which currently has a reduced capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Cowling says more tickets will be released if Mr Johnson, as expected, makes another announcement next Monday to confirm all remaining lockdown restrictions being lifted on July 19.

In a statement on the U's website, Cowling said: "We are expecting Spurs to send a strong team, albeit with a few exceptions due to players resting after the Euros, and we remember how popular the game was when we last played Tottenham in a pre-season game before the 2013/14 season.

"That game was a sell-out and I’m expecting there to be as much demand for tickets this time around too, but therein lies a bit of a problem because we want to get the tickets on sale ASAP but we don’t yet know for certain what Covid-19 restrictions will be in place from the 19th July until Boris confirms his plans next Monday, (12th July).

"Therefore, until Boris confirms the plans he laid out, we are going to start to sell the game under our current Covid protocols which will probably restrict our capacity to around 3,500 fans depending upon group, (bubble), size, of which around 800 will be ring-fenced for Spurs fans who will be allocated the seats in the North Stand.

"If Boris does confirm on July 12th that there are no more restrictions on stadiums, then we will release more tickets.

"I’m not sure how many more just yet because our current capacity is reduced due to the changes we made at the stadium last season and I’m personally a little uncomfortable with the decision to unlock so dramatically and turbo charge a virus that is currently doubling every nine days.

"Anyway, I’m guessing that however many seats we do make available, it won’t be enough and we will have more fans wanting tickets than we will have tickets to sell.

"Therefore the sale of the tickets for this match will be prioritised."