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Premier League will go again but with strict limits on exactly who is allowed in the stadium from players to staff

THE Premier League may never look the same again.

From sell-out crowds of 76,000 at Old Trafford, suddenly there will be only a maximum of 300 people in top-flight stadiums when the season resumes – and that includes the players.

A glimpse of “the new normal” has been revealed as the countdown to June 17 and the double-header of Aston Villa v Sheffield United and Manchester City v Arsenal edges ever closer.

Premier League clubs have been sent the match-day protocols for the return of football amid the coronavirus pandemic, which will be discussed and approved at today’s meeting.

Behind closed doors, the glamour and glitz of games will look and sound very different.

There will be 20 players per club – 18 in the match-day squad with two on standby – and 12 members of coaching and medical staff.

But the use of five substitutes is still up for discussion and one club revealed to Mirror Sport that this was “still in the balance”.

Five match-day officials – referee, linesmen, fourth official and assessor – will be allowed in, with someone to oversee that VAR works smoothly as video referees will be in operation at Stockley Park where social distancing will be observed.

While clubs have been given permission not to use VAR, the general feeling is they want to keep it as close to being as it was before for the reasons of integrity. Referees will be stationed in different areas to the players to get changed and there will be four doping-control officers, four press officers and six opposition scouts to allow clubs to check on future opponents.

Premier League Productions is the league’s in-house TV channel and they can have up to 30 staff plus foreign broadcasters and commentators.

While almost a third of the 300 will be for the likes of Sky, BT Sport, Amazon and the BBC, who will get up to 98 people in the ground to oversee their huge TV productions, which,

Pre and post-match press conferences will be held via video conferencing platform Slogans supporting NHS around ground The first draft also reveals that plans are in place for VAR staff to be based across separate rooms at their Stockley Park headquarters VAR technician opposition scouts, one from each of the next three sides those playing are set to face match day officials referee, linesmen, fourth official and assessor