Liverpool may have to play at neutral venue

LIVERPOOL could be denied the opportunity to seal the Premier League title at Anfield if public health concerns are factored into where the final matches of the 2019-20 season are played.

Top-flight clubs will hold further talks on how the season can be restarted amid the coronavirus pandemic at their next shareholders’ meeting today.

Part of the ‘Project Restart’ discussions will centre around the use of approved venues, which may mean teams playing on neutral grounds and immediately throws up questions over competition integrity.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber says being unable to play all games home and away as planned would be a “further imperfection” on top of the already accepted imperfection of playing behind closed doors.

The UK’s national football policing lead Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts told the PA news agency on Wednesday that playing all the remaining matches at their original venues would “present challenges” to the emergency services already stretched by the Covid-19 outbreak.

There would be pressure points from a health and public order perspective on a match where the league title or another season-defining issue was on the line, because of the potential for mass gatherings of supporters, DCC Roberts said that will be in the league’s thinking.

“In the first instance, football has to satisfy the Government that they can hold the matches and that it’s safe for everyone to do it in terms of players, officials, coaching staff, broadcasters,” he said.

“So you get that first stage of ‘how do you make it safe to play football at the location?’ And it may be that actually that mandates them being played at specific neutral venues where it can be controlled.”