UEFA has lifted its Saturday 3pm blackout – paving the way for behind closed doors games to be shown live on TV.
It comes after the Premier League made contingency plans to get the season finished with Sky and BT Sport already braced to show extra games to potentially keep fans away from stadiums.
Mirror Sport revealed this week they are also considering putting games “behind the red button” and showing others on terrestrial TV as they consider ways of getting the season done.
The fear is that playing games behind closed doors would mean supporters turn up and cause an extra security risk plus the Premier League want to save the TV deal and stop having to pay back £750m in broadcast cash.
But the long running rule would stop games being shown on Saturday afternoons – and that has now been changed.
It comes after the Premier League and Football Association requested UEFA to change it which means it would also allow EFL games to be shown live.
The UEFA regulation was updated on Friday and says: “Taking into account the current exceptional circumstances, UEFA has lifted the ‘blocked hours’ protection granted to the England and Scotland for the remainder of the 2019-20 season football season, following requests from the relevant national associations as a result of measures taken in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
It is highly likely when games do eventually return they will be behind closed doors to stop the coronavirus spreading.