BACK OF THE NET
World Cup hero Hurst hails return of top flight Rashford’s win over Boris on starving kids
IT’S a gain of two halves for the nation...
Premier League football is back tonight after 100 days, and England’s Marcus Rashford has forced the Tories to fund free meals for vulnerable kids over the summer.
World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst said of the League’s return: “It’ll give the country a massive lift.”
ENGLAND’S World Cup hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst says football’s long-awaited return tonight will be a big step forward for the country.
After a 100-day lay-off because of the pandemic, Aston Villa will take on Sheffield United at 6pm before Manchester City face Arsenal.
Football-starved fans are gearing up for a spate of matches in the coming weeks – with all the remaining 92 Premier League games being televised.
Sir Geoff, part of the World Cup winning team in 1966, said: “It’s fantastic. Football is a huge part of all our lives, and to get it back will give the country a massive lift.
“It’s bringing back a very important, normal part of life. Football returning will go a big way to getting a sense of normality back after what has been such a difficult three months.
“I’ve missed it greatly. It always was and still is a massive part of my life...
“The Premier League is the greatest league in the world and I can’t wait.
“It will be great to just talk about football again. I think many of us are running out of things to talk about.
“It’s the best sport in the world, it’s back with a bang and it will have a huge, positive impact, giving people something to talk and joke about with friends and loved ones.
“It’s a huge step towards our country getting back to normal.”
He joked he would have to fit footie around the new schedule he and wife Judith have developed in lockdown.
Sir Geoff, 78, said: “Like lots of people we’ve had to get new routines
– so I’ll have to squeeze football into it.” He added: “I hope it doesn’t upset the wife too much.”
The matches are being played behind closed doors, and fans are being urged not to go near stadiums.
The remaining Premier League matches will be available to watch across Sky Sports, Pick, BT Sport, BBC and Amazon. Most will be pay-to-view.
BBC and Amazon have four games each and these will be free.
Sky has 64 in total and 25 of them will be free on its Pick channel.
It will be the first time the BBC has televised top-flight matches live during the Premier League era, which began in 1992.
The first game on BBC will be Bournemouth versus Crystal Palace on Saturday. Tonight’s matches – which could feature the likes of Arsenal star PierreEmerick Aubameyang, Man City striker Sergio Aguero, Aston Villa skipper Jack Grealish and Sheffield United forward Billy Sharp – are for Sky subscribers. Some think they will become the broadcaster’s mostwatched games ever.
Currently, Manchester City’s 1-0 win over Manchester United in 2012 holds the record – with 4.04 million tuning in. BT
It will have a huge, positive impact. I’ve missed it greatly
SIR GEOFF HURST ON RETURN OF FOOTBALL
Sport had huge viewing figures when football returned recently in Germany’s Bundesliga – with 750,000 tuning in across three channels, compared to the normal amount of around 50,000.
Betting firms are expecting huge sums to be splurged after they reopened across England on Monday in time for Royal Ascot and the Premier League restart.
A Ladbrokes survey found 47% of sports fans have missed the Premier League more than anything else – including the European Football Championships, the Olympics, Wimbledon, and the Grand National, all of which were cancelled or postponed due to Covid-19.
But just 4% of fans said they miss pundits and post-match analysis, while half said they will be watching as much sport as possible when it returns.
Around 43% of people in Liverpool are looking forward to watching Premier
League football, with the Reds needing just six points to claim their first Premier League title – but their 19th top-flight championship in all, the last one in 1990.
There were fears among many Liverpool fans that the season would be written off because of the pandemic. Ladbrokes said: “We can’t wait for the return of the Premier League and neither can punters.
“Despite the title being all but wrapped up, there’s still plenty for fans to sink their teeth into over the coming weeks and months.
“As a nation of sports fans we’ve missed the beautiful game enormously... Even though it’s behind closed doors, fans will be consuming it in their droves as the time apart has made them realise how much they love it. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder and it’s great to have sport back at long last.”
Long-time West Ham player Sir Geoff will take a special interest in the first match tonight. He said: “I’ll be watching the Aston Villa game as we [West Ham] play them the last game of the season, so I want to know how they’re playing.”
He has seen footie re-runs in lockdown, including when he took part in a Ch4 show giving his insight as he watched the 1966 World Cup final.
Sir Geoff said it was “emotional”, having not watched it for years. He joked that playing in the final was “less stressful” than doing the TV show, which he appeared on via Zoom.
THE fact Boris Johnson had to be shamed by footballer Marcus Rashford into feeding England’s 1.3 million free school-meals pupils during the holidays is a damning indictment of an out-of-touch PM.
We congratulate the England and Man United star, who used his own early experience of hardship and his current celebrity to be a powerful voice for the dispossessed.
Yet it shouldn’t take Rashford, or Labour leader Keir Starmer, or Tory rebels, or teaching unions, or the Labour Government in Cardiff, or the SNP Government in Edinburgh to force Johnson to do the right thing.
Time after time, the first instincts of this Prime Minister, including over the treatment of NHS and care-home workers during the coronavirus crisis, are wrong.
The latest humiliating U-turn is welcome, but how much longer must the country endure in Downing Street a man clearly out of his depth? Rashford showed the decisive leadership completely lacking in the PM.