At the risk of 'wissiebelch' getting on his high vaccination horse, imho, i believe its due to various side effect of different vaccines now bringing out known/unknown symptoms in individuals.

There has been, since the resumption of crowds at events, far too many incidences of fans becoming 'ill' at matches. Did it happen before, probably. Was it broadcast, doubt it. I have no recollection of anyone becoming ill at a game, has anyone?

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

Only a matter of time before fans are "ill" to slow the game down if thier team needs the game slowed down and to re-group!

Yup! Sadly just before k.o. at the 1989 Blackburn second leg, a poor man actually died on the Holmesdale terrace just in front of us, despite the best efforts of my cousin's friend (a firefighter) and the ambulance crew to revive him. I'll never forget how, despite it being rammed solid, the crowd somehow managed to part enough to get the stretcher through over the rails.

It was eerily quiet for about 7/8 minutes afterwards, then the teams came out.......

A stairway to Heaven and a Highway to Hell give some indication of expected traffic numbers

God I remember that, I was right next to the poor bloke. He was with his son who was in his late teens early 20's. The son went to get a drink or something to return to find his Dad being frantically worked on.....the saddest thing I have ever experienced at a football match.

I remember being at a game in the early 70,s - evening midweek game in the winter, in the Holmesdale end, a young kid had been standing on a wooden platform, about 6 inches high (presumably his dad had made for him to help him see) he slipped forward & as he fell backwards bashed his head against the concrete floor causing a scrape & some bleeding, it was one of those incidents where you couldnt help but feel it could have been much worse - anyway the St Johns guys came over & helped the guy out of the stadium, presumably to the hospital for a check up -
There was no impact on the game at all, the players were completely unaware of it.

Just another thought.

I read somewhere that the average age of football crowds has increased significantly because youngsters can't afford a ticket. If that is true then it makes sense the older the crowd the more likely there will be medical episodes.

One more point