Spurs fury as Fulham game falls to Covid
caption that said: “Match at 6pm... We still don’t know if we play. Best league in the world.”
The Spurs hierarchy were in full agreement with their manager as they were left in limbo. Even though Fulham first reported the outbreak to the Premier League on Tuesday, no decision was taken until 24 hours later.
It is believed that six Fulham players and four members of staff have tested positive for coronavirus but it might have been complicated further by others needing to self isolate even if negative.
The Cottagers may though be able to play Sunday’s game at Burnley if there are no more positive cases.
Fulham players were in a hotel in London preparing for last night’s match when the club asked the Premier League for a postponement, with an official statement going out at 3.14pm.
But by that time Tottenham had already gone to great expense to put the game on and TV crews had started setting up as the match was due to be shown live on Amazon.
Clubs are angry that there does not seem to be a set method of determining whether a game should go ahead. The original plan was that if a team could field 14 players they must play.
It has been further complicated by a backlash after Manchester City’s game at Everton was postponed on Monday after City reported five positive cases.
Other clubs now feel the Premier League have opened the floodgates and more clubs will ask for postponements, causing chaos and a huge fixture backlog but with no set plan in place to decide if games should be played.
Last night the Premier League said it had not discussed pausing the season and had no plans to do so.
A statement said: “The Premier League continues to have confidence in its Covid-19 protocols to enable fixtures to be played as scheduled.
“With the health of players and staff the priority, the league is also fully supportive of how clubs are implementing the protocols and rules.”