Premier League to restart on June 17: Reports

NEWDELHI: Premier League clubs have agreed to resume the season, suspended in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, on June 17, several news reports in England have claimed.

The season will resume with two games on the said date —Aston Villa vs Sheffield United and Manchester City vs Arsenal —that will take all 20 clubs to 29 games played. The first full rounds of games will take place later that weekend, on June 20 and 21, the reports added. All games will be played behind closed doors. The decision to go ahead with the final phase of ‘Project Restart’ was taken at a meeting of shareholders of the 20 clubs. It comes a day after clubs voted to resume contact training, which is the second phase of the resumption plan. As per the reports on Thursday, the Premier League is keen to finish the season on the weekend of August 1-2, with the FA Cup final slotted for the next weekend.

A total of 92 games are left to be played in the English top-flight. Liverpool presently lead the standings with 82 points from 29 games, 25 points clear of secondplaced Manchester City who have a game in hand —the one at home against Arsenal.

A maximum of six points will be required by Liverpool to clinch the league title, although any City slip-up will further bring down the requirement.

12 POSITIVE CASES

Earlier, four individuals from three clubs were found to be Covid-19 positive in the testing round conducted on Monday and Tuesday. This round of 1,008 tests followed a previous round of 1,744 tests which had produced eight positive cases, taking the total count to 12 from a total of 2,752 tests. This was the initial phase of Premier League’s ‘Project Restart’.

In England’s second tier league, the Championship, tests were carried out on 1,030 players and staff between Monday and Wednesday. These tests produced three positive cases, including two unnamed players from Fulham.

The Championship is also planning to resume its season in June. Leeds United lead the standings there with 71 points from 37 games, and look favourites to secure one of the two direct promotion slots to the Premier League.

VILLA MANAGER’S FATHER DIES

Premier League club Aston Villa have said manager Dean Smith’s father Ron has died from Covid-19. “The Aston Villa Family are saddened to announce that Ron Smith ... has passed away at the age of 79,” the club said in a statement. “Ron, who had recently been living in a care home after being diagnosed with dementia, contracted coronavirus four weeks ago.”