EPL outfit to cover costs for EFL side

AN ENGLISH Premier League club has been forced to pay for their lower league Carabao Cup opponents to be tested for Covid-19 this week as they fear being infected after the EFL removed the mandatory protocol for teams to be screened on a weekly basis.

Players in the English Championship will now only be tested after international breaks this side of Christmas following new guidance from the EFL.

The same applies to clubs in League One and Two, but only for players who have been away with their country or given an extended break.

Top-flight sources say they are deeply concerned about meeting EFL teams in the cups, given the increased risk of their players and staff being exposed to coronavirus.

Testing in the EFL is at the discretion of individual clubs and is only mandatory when a person shows symptoms.

But with each test costing between £100 and £150, the weekly bill can be as much as £30,000 if 100 employees are checked prior to two matches.

The last mandatory tests were on Friday before the start of the new season, but players and staff will now go untested until after October’s international matches, before which there are two more rounds of the Carabao Cup.

‘We just can’t afford it,’ said one club source. ‘It was not sustainable to be paying anywhere between £10,000 and £30,000 each week. With no supporters in the ground there are a lot of clubs facing financial oblivion. All we can do is make our environment as safe as possible.’