Liverpool dream on as EPL eyes return
With an English Premier League restart looming, Liverpool have started to dream of lifting the League title, even though none of their red-clad fans can be there to see it.
That would be a ‘‘pretty strange’’ experience, Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson told the BBC.
Liverpool need six points from their last nine games to win the league for the first time in 30 years. June has been touted as the likely restart month, after the EPL was suspended in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
When the game returns it will be without fans, due to Government Covid-19 protocols around elite sport.
‘‘Of course it would feel different because if you win any trophy and receive it without any fans there, it would be pretty strange,’’ Henderson said.
‘‘It’s still not over, we still have work to do . . . We want to finish as strongly as we can to make sure it is a full season.
‘‘After that, whether we win it or whatever, then [receiving] the trophy and the fans not being there . . . You just have to deal with it when it comes.’’
Clubs on Thursday approved plans to resume contact training, even as some players are concerned about taking to the field again during the pandemic.
The vote by the 20 clubs came after gaining Government clearance for players to work together as a squad, as restrictions are eased across England.
The season is set to return in the second half of June, will all games closed to fans. The location of matches is still to be resolved after clubs rejected proposals for all
France:
Germany:
Spain:
England:
The status of European football’s major men’s leagues following their suspension in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
■ Season abandoned. Paris Saint-Germain declared champion.
■ Bundesliga returned on May 16.
■
8.
■ Premier League restarting on June 17, pending government approval.
■ Serie A resuming on June 20.
La Liga resuming after June
Italy:
fixtures venues.
But there are still contingencies being formulated if there is a need to abandon the season.
Players can now enter the next phase to step up preparations for games. The protocols still acknowledge the social distancing required in wider society.
‘‘Discussions are ongoing as work continues towards resuming the season,’’ the Premier League said, ‘‘when conditions allow . . . when safe to do so.’’
Players and staff members at clubs are being tested twice a week for Covid-19. Bournemouth goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and Watford defender Adrian Mariappa
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New Zealand’s joint bid with Australia to host the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup bid seems to have done wonders for transTasman football relations.
And if a travel bubble between the two countries is in place later this year, NZ Football chief Andrew Pragnell is keen to see what fixtures might be possible.
Football Federation Australia and NZ Football will find out at the end of June whether their bid to host the World Cup has been successful.
But even if it isn’t, Pragnell is confident the process they have been through over the past 12 months has left them with a strong relationship they will both be eager
are the only players announced as testing positive for the disease in last week’s tests.
Some players still have reservations about playing – particularly at Watford, which is a place above the relegation zone.
‘‘I’m not in favour of the Premier to build on. ‘‘There is a growing and strengthening relationship between the two associations, so much so that irrespective of the result of the bid, I hope to see a partnership between our two associations in the years to come,’’ he said.
The first men’s international match between New Zealand and Australia, in Dunedin in 1922, was the first for both countries, while Australia regards a match between the two in Sydney in 1979 as its first women’s international.
They were consistently the top two nations in Oceania until the early 2000s, but since Australia left to join the Asian Football Confederation in 2005, they have not been as close as they once were.
League returning, in a sense that not everyone is comfortable with it,’’ Watford backup goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes said in a video interview.
Watford captain Troy Deeney did not return to training last week over concerns about his son’s health.