Dyke warns against axing EPL season
LONDON: Former English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke said it would be nonsensical for the Premier League to abandon the current season and scratch the rankings, arguing it would lead to huge financial losses.
The Premier League has been suspended until at least April 4, following an emergency meeting sparked by Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta testing positive for the virus last week.
Premier League chiefs and clubs will meet to discuss the options this week.
Current FA boss Greg Clarke told
The Times newspaper on the weekend that he did not think the season would be completed.
Dyke said scrapping the season would prove costly for the FA, thanks to unpaid broadcast fees and lawsuits from clubs, and that the Premier League could take advantage of the likely cancellation of Euro 2020 to play into August.
“You might have to play behind closed doors to fulfil the contracts for the broadcasters, otherwise they’re not going to pay up and that could mean hundreds of millions of pounds. You may even have to play three matches a week to get them done,” Dyke told
The Times.
“I can see if you are a Norwich fan or of a team like West Ham, you might be delighted if the season was cancelled. At a club like Leeds [top of the second tier], fans would go nuts. You can also imagine clubs taking legal action.”
Liverpool require two wins to secure their first English top flight title in 30 years and former boss Kenny Dalglish said it would be a travesty if the season is cancelled.
“That wouldn’t be fair and any person with football at heart would admit that would be totally out of order,” Dalglish wrote in his column for The Sunday Post newspaper.
Karen Brady, the vice-chairman of relegation-threatened West Ham United, said on Saturday those who hoped that the Premier League would resume next month were in “dreamland” and the season could be cancelled.
Meanwhile, Virgil Van Dijk fears Liverpool will be forced to celebrate their first English title for 30 years in an empty stadium.
Games could be played behind closed doors if the league resumes and this would mean Liverpool, who are 25 points clear of second placed Manchester City, winning the title without their fans being present.
That is a depressing prospect for Liverpool defender Van Dijk.
“If we won it in an empty stadium and the fans weren’t there, I’d be gutted for them,” he told several British newspapers on Sunday.
“Obviously, if there are no fans at Anfield, then it will be a bit of a blow. No one wants to play games without the fans.
“Until a decision is made on how we go on from here, then we just have to deal with it. But when it happens, we are still bringing the title to our fans, definitely.”