Mirror Sport understands the Government has encouraged the Premier League to move from the outline planning stage to more concrete proposals.
The government has been in talks with the Premier League for weeks, and now the Prime Minister’s office has offered real encouragement that a return to complete the season behind closed doors may be possible in June.
(The framework includes:
(Phased return to training, for individual programs at the start of May.) Full contact squad training, possibly in the last week of May. Games to resume as early as the second week in June.
- Government cooperation on support services at stadiums for matches, including medical and police. It is s been bluntly stated though, that any return is entirely dependent on the Coronavirus curve being flattened in the UK, and the death rate reducing significantly.
There are several issues still to thrash out, with clubs still keen on playing the remaining fixtures in their own stadiums, rather than at neutral venues.
But some key principles have now been agreed, including an ambitious program to keep players safe through testing which will see all personnel who will attend games being checked up to three times a week.
That will require the Premier League to put in place upwards of , tests. Government officials though, have suggested key worker testing will be ramped up over the coming weeks, reducing the potential for an outcry if the Premier League starts using the much-prized tests at the end of May.
Former Manchester United star and BT pundit Rio Ferdinand said: “We have to go by what the Government says. Whatever way they see it, we have to respect that.
“Like the isolation and lockdown period, we’ve been very respectful of that, listened to the guidelines and stayed with that and I think the football world has to be the same.
“(We need to be) governed by the powers that be, that make a decision based on the health of the nation and the players as well. ”
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