Project Restart delay as EPL seek to scrap neutral venues plan
THE Premier League will be urged to delay Project Restart and ask the government whether there is an opportunity to abandon their plan of licensing neutral venues and instead use home and away grounds to finish the season.
Brighton, Aston Villa and Watford have expressed their opposition to neutral venues and West Ham vice chairman Karren Brady yesterday said clubs were ‘understandably concerned’ by the plan.
It is expected the Premier League will reiterate that police advice and Public Health England guidance means the government will only allow football to restart in 10 approved neutral venues and so there is no other option at present.
There is a further meeting between the Premier League, the FA, the EFL, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Public Health England on Thursday.
Some clubs will want the issue raised there even though the head of the UK Football Police Unit, Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts, has told football executives to ‘get a grip’ and stop complaining about neutral venues.
There is a video conference of the Premier League clubs tomorrow, where the only voting will be around the technical issue of extending the contracts of players whose deals run out on June 30.
The concerns of some clubs centre around the fact that they are being rushed into a plan to restart which is inappropriate, given that deaths were still averaging more than 500 a day in the UK last week.
At present, the season is scheduled to restart on June 12, with the FA Cup final the last game of the season on August 8.
The argument will be put that a delay, when the reproduction rate of coronavirus falls further, would be both safer and allow the possibility of home and away games, which would lessen the disadvantage of those in the relegation zone.
Addressing the issue of neutral venues, Brady wrote in her newspaper column: ‘The games will look and feel very different and there’s no getting away from the fact the final nine rounds of matches will be played in unusual circumstances.
‘Clubs on the brink are understandably concerned about giving up home advantage, let alone playing without their vital 12th man — their supporters.’
Scott Duxbury, Watford chairman, wrote: ‘When at least six clubs, and I suspect more, are concerned about the clear downside and the devastating effects of playing in this kind of distorted nine-game mini-league, then I believe the Premier League has a duty of care to address those concerns.’
The clubs feel that the police are being simplistic in imposing neutral venues to deter fans from turning up. They say it would be easier to control messages and influence their fans at their own grounds.
However, they will be told by the Premier League that the authorities are insisting on neutral grounds not simply because of those fears but on health grounds, in that it is easier to sanitise a limited number of grounds and control the environment.
The argument over relegation has been broadly won, with no club likely to raise that issue. It is understood that even clubs in the relegation zone will accept a restart which involves the drop, despite the huge consequences of relegation in the midst of an economic crisis.
There is also less talk of curtailment now. Most clubs seem to accept that the Premier League will be restarting if the government gives permission and there isn’t a sudden second spike in infections in the next two weeks.
The timing is still to be debated tomorrow but most Premier League players have been told to turn up for pre-season training — with strict social distancing — on May 18.