The Premier League season could restart in July with clubs discussing the possibility of playing up to five matches a day in a bid to get the campaign completed.
The plans, carried by the Independent, would see isolated camps in the Midlands and London host the matches behind closed doors and would allow all 92 remaining matches to be televised.
Though the Premier League want to work to the quickest time frame, they will wait until the ‘curve’ of the coronavirus has been ‘flattened’ in the UK before restarting. It’s hoped that this could be in June, perhaps July.
Talks are still at an early stage but with the ‘peak’ of the pandemic expected in a fortnight’s time in the UK, it’s hoped that there would be enough due time afterwards that the season could restart in around three months’ time.
Premier League clubs stand to miss out on millions of television money should the season not be completed, while the corporation are worried about damaging their reputation if, for example, Liverpool do not claim the title.
In order to carry out the plans, all squads would have to be quarantined in ‘camps’ after testing for the disease and they would be denied contact with family and friends until the season is completed.
It’s hoped by this point that testing for the disease will have been so widespread that the government will be able to relax some of the lockdown measures introduced in the last fortnight.
However, there have been growing calls in recent days for the season to be voided and the plans come as the deputy chief medical officer for England warned the country that they face up to six months in some form of lockdown.
‘We actually anticipate our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two, and then we are looking to see whether we have managed to push that curve down and we start to see a decline,’ she said.
‘This is not to say we would be in complete lockdown for six months, but as a nation we have to be really, really responsible and keep doing what we’re all doing until we’re sure we can gradually start lifting various interventions which are likely to be spaced – based on the science and our data – until we gradually come back to a normal way of living.’
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