YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAGE GAMES ALL IN ONE CITY..CLUBS ARE MUCH TOO PICKY ABOUT ELITE HOTELS AND TRAINING GROUNDS

PLANS to put footballers under lockdown for a month to get the season finished have been branded unworkable – as clubs are too picky.

Hotel quarantine is one idea mooted for Friday’s next round of talks between the Premier League, EFL, Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association.

It would see a restart in June with the remaining games squeezed into a condensed time frame, matches played behind closed doors and players kept in isolation to protect them from the risk of contracting coronavirus.

Stadiums, hotels and training facilities in centralised locations would undergo a ‘deep clean’, with the players under strict quarantine, to enable the season to be completed by mid-july (above, Mancheter United stars arriving at a hotel; below, Mason Mount in training with Chelsea).

But Christian Machowski, whose company ESEM specialises in travel management for top clubs across Europe, believes the plan is unrealistic because of the demands when it comes to hotels and training facilities. “There are so many factors that come into play,” said Machowski.

“When clubs are looking to book hotels, one of the chief issues is what is an acceptable time to drive to a stadium.

“Teams don’t want to be stuck on a bus for 45 minutes to an hour, travelling to a game. Everybody wants the best for their team, but there’s only a small number of elite hotels that are suitable.

“For example, there are two or three hotels in London where all the teams tend to stay when they play there. To find a venue where 20 teams can find facilities up to the required standard is just not workable.

Machowski, (below, right) whose firm has handled almost 500 European games and training camps for clubs over the past 24 years, added: “In terms of training facilities, teams would also want to be as close as possible, so that would present problems.

‘‘Then you would have to quarantine the same hotel staff for three or four weeks.

“And if one team picked up an infection, whether a player or member of staff, that’s the end of the tournament.

“It’s not about teams staying in luxury, it’s complicated because the infrastructure is so finely tuned for clubs in terms of what they need.”

Brighton have voiced opposition to the proposal for a single-city Premier League finale, citing concerns over hotel accommodation, the number of pitches required and the intense fixture schedule.

Chief executive Paul Barber also has worries about even discussing a return to football while the coronavirus casualty rate around the country is soaring.

“As creative as we want to be, people are losing their lives,” he said. “This is a serious, serious situation. We’re totally driven towards completing the season but, at the moment, it is tough to talk about

it.”