Premier League club-by-club: how are they dealing with coronavirus?
The club has been in lockdown since Thursday night, when their head coach, Mikel Arteta, received a positive test result for coronavirus. Around 100 employees, including the first-team squad and coaching staff, are self-isolating while the London Colney and Hale End training centres have been closed. No further positive tests have been disclosed but staff throughout other areas are working from home. Training is set to resume on 24 March but that depends heavily on what is a rapidly developing situation. In the meantime players have been given individual training programmes; some have their own gyms at home but equipment has been sent to those who need it. Arsenal’s executive team are holding meetings every morning; the club is actively involved in the discussions surrounding the season’s future but no conclusions have yet been drawn. Nick Ames
Aston Villa
No Villa players have suffered any symptoms and the squad trained as normal on Monday, and other essential “performance-related” staff also worked as usual. The rest of the club’s staff were allowed to work from home or given time off. The club say people’s health is paramount and they have not yet formulated a firm view as to what should happen if the season is not able to resume on 3 April. Pepe Reina, on loan at Villa from Milan, said in an interview in Spain that the season should have been suspended sooner. “It was crazy to keep playing,” the keeper was quoted as telling Marca, adding: “The leagues should only start again when everything calms down ... and the most logical thing is to postpone Euro 2020 to next year.” Paul Doyle
Bournemouth
The goalkeeper Artur Boruc and four first-team staff remain in self-isolation after reporting symptoms, but none have been formally tested for Covid-19 as per government guidelines. Players are due to resume training for their fixture against Newcastle on 4 April next Monday. Until then, players are preparing remotely after being given tailor-made training programmes, while injured players such as Chris Mepham and Charlie Daniels have been permitted to report for treatment on a staggered basis. Eddie Howe met with club doctor Craig Roberts on Friday morning and, while there are no firm travel restrictions, the Bournemouth manager has advised his players to act sensibly and in line with government guidance. The club’s chief executive, Neill Blake, is set to represent the club at the league’s emergency meeting on Thursday. Ben Fisher
Graham Potter’s squad are continuing to train despite the hiatus ,and the fact that five members of the club’s staff entered self-isolation last week as a precaution. “There is a contingency plan in place,” said Paul Barber, the club’s chief executive and deputy chairman who caused some controversy over the weekend when he admitted he could be in favour of Leeds and West Brom joining a 22-team top-flight next season. “I think that is a possible option,” he said on Football Focus. “To leave the 20 teams in the Premier League as it is would obviously help us and would help others, but to bring the top two teams from the Championship up, give us a larger league for next season … it has some merit. We are in an unprecedented time and we may need an unprecedented solution for this particular problem.” Ed Aarons
Burnley
All academy football from under-16s down has been stopped until further notice but otherwise it is business as usual. Sean Dyche and his players are still in training at Barnfield, office and admin staff are reporting for work and corporate events are still being held at Turf Moor. There has been increased screening at the training ground and stadium as the club follows government and Premier League advice on the pandemic. The club will accept any decision the authorities take on the future of the Premier League season, but is understood to be in favour of the campaign being completed. Andy Hunter
Chelsea
Chelsea are in lockdown, their players and coaching staff in self-isolation and part of their training ground closed, after Callum Hudson-Odoi’s positive test for the virus last week. So, in that context, it was shocking to see pictures of Mason Mount on Sunday having a kick-around with friends at a football centre in north London. For Chelsea, exasperation does not cover it and the club have reminded all of their players of why it is so important to follow government advice. Hudson-Odoi’s test result came back on Thursday night but he had shown signs of a cold from the beginning of last week and had stayed away from the training ground since then. He was feeling fine by Wednesday night, his symptoms having been mild. Chelsea’s players are scheduled to return to training on Sunday but, as with everything, it is subject to change at a moment’s notice. David Hytner
Crystal Palace
The decision to close the first team and academy training grounds in Beckenham on Monday for a week was taken as a precautionary measure, and players have been given individual fitness plans to carry out at home until further notice. Given proposals that the government could soon ask all people over the age of 70 to self-isolate, Palace will have concerns over 72-year-old Roy Hodgson, the Premier League’s oldest manager. Co-chairman Steve Parish offered a tongue-in-cheek response after being asked how the Premier League should finish off the season. “Finally a sensible solution,” he tweeted after another user suggested basing the final standings on the form table for the past three matches. That would give Palace a first league title and leave Liverpool down in sixth place. EA
Everton
All staff, players and coaching team included, have been advised to stay away from all club sites until further notice. The decision was taken after an unnamed player reported a high temperature on Thursday. The player’s condition has improved but he will remain in self-isolation for a total of seven days. Others are following individual training programmes at home and have been advised to stay away from public places unless absolutely necessary. As things stand, it will be 22 March before the first team squad resume training at Finch Farm. The club’s stated position on the league season is as follows: “Everton is com
mitted to working alongside the Premier League – and all of its clubs – to make a collective decision in the best interests of the wellbeing of our country. The first priority must always be public health as we battle the coronavirus pandemic.” AH
Leicester City
No other players have reported feeling unwell after three went into seven days of self-isolation with very mild flulike symptoms. The whole squad have been given several days off since the league was put on hold and are not scheduled to resume training before Thursday’s meeting, where plans for the rest of the season may become clearer. The club, who sit third in the table and are on course for Champions League qualification, say they must operate as if their match at Everton will go ahead on 6 April and do not believe there is any need yet to take a public stance on what should happen if that is not possible. PD
Liverpool
In line with Jürgen Klopp’s statement on Friday that health comes before football, and given the variables at play with the pandemic, the league leaders maintain it is inappropriate to adopt a public position on the future of the season at this time. Club officials will make representations to the various federations and governing bodies when talks take place, and sporting integrity will be central to Liverpool’s position. In the meantime, players will follow individual training programmes at home having been advised to stay away from Melwood since Friday. They are due to return this month providing the season does resume from 3 April. Injured players are allowed access to Melwood but their rehabilitation schedules are being restricted and staggered to minimise contact. All players have
City players have been training at home over the weekend with Gabriel Jesus, Nicolás Otamendi, Oleksandr Zinchenko, João Cancelo and David Silva posting images on Instagram of themselves working out. Although Benjamin Mendy self-isolated after fears his father may have the coronavirus, it is understood he has been cleared. Cancelo also published a picture of himself and a baby with the legend: “The best quarantine.” Whether this is a clue regarding the state of Pep Guardiola’s squad is unclear; the club are remaining tight-lipped regarding whether they will be training together as usual. Jamie Jackson
Manchester United
The players have been given a few days off by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after Thursday’s 5-0 win at Lask and are due back on Tuesday to continue training as normal at the club’s Carrington base. This is the plan for the foreseeable future unless government advice changes. A number of precautions are in place to decrease the potential for the disease being caught across the club. A statement said: “[There are] strengthened hygiene procedures and additional limits on access to our Aon Training Complex, where visitors will be asked to complete questionnaires about their recent travel and potential exposure to coronavirus.” JJ
Newcastle United
The club have closed their training ground to virtually everyone for two weeks, although injured players are expected to attend for physiotherapy. The club’s nearby academy has also been shut for a fortnight. That training ground has been regularly deepsprayed since Christmas, when a few players and coaches developed a different virus, and that will continue. No Newcastle player or staff member has the virus or is isolating and every player has a personal training programme to follow at home. Steve Bruce is openminded about players travelling abroad during their two-week break but wants any case to be assessed individually with the club doctor. The plan is for training to resume on Monday week. Bruce believes the season should be completed if possible but suspects it could be six or eight weeks before it restarts. Newcastle had been preparing for what they regarded as an inevitable shutdown for the past four weeks and individual training player programmes were ready. Louise Taylor
Norwich City
Norwich’s players have been given time off, which is largely being spent with their families. Injured players are continuing their rehabilitation programmes but the club’s stance is to assess the situation as time goes on, with training recommencing accordingly if the season does in fact restart on 4 April. No positive tests for coronavirus or cases of self-isolation have been disclosed. The club’s season is on a knife-edge given Norwich’s position at the foot of the Premier League but with a number of winnable games left. No judgment has been made, publicly or in private, about how they feel it should proceed. NA
Sheffield United
The Blades have not trained since last week and are keeping their plans for this week dynamic. “It’s a fluid situation,” said one official on Monday afternoon, explaining he was not sure when training would resume. “The priority is to keep everyone safe so we are keeping things under constant review.” The club has suspended indefinitely all non-essential business and closed all offices at Bramall Lane at least until next week. PD
Southampton
All players reported to training on
Monday morning as expected but the club has tightened restrictions at their Staplewood training campus and at St Mary’s. A deep clean has been conducted at both the training ground and the stadium sites. Staff that work elsewhere across the club, such as foundation projects and development centres, are being managed on a caseby-case basis, with necessary precautions taken. Customer-facing areas of the club such as the ticket office and stadium store are closed until further notice. No players have reported symptoms but former player Manolo Gabbiadini, now of Sampdoria, tested positive for Covid-19 last week. “We have to do everything possible to make sure that the virus is not spreading so quickly,” said Ralph Hasenhüttl on Thursday. “This is the goal we all have.” BF
Tottenham
Tottenham have seen no symptoms of the virus among their players and they trained as normal on Monday, with Son Heung-min back among their number after a 14-day period of self-isolation. The winger had returned to his native South Korea – which has been badly affected by Covid-19 – to undergo surgery on a fractured forearm. José Mourinho and his players will continue to work as usual, although they will now be able to factor in a few days off because of the postponed matches. The club’s training base in Enfield is fully operational and the hierarchy’s view is that they want to find a way to complete the season. DH
Watford
Watford’s players last trained on Friday and are due to return on Wednesday after a short break. No decisions have been taken about a longterm training regime, which is obviously dependent on the overall situation and the health of the players, the coaching staff and their families. All players and coaches are understood to be in good health currently – three tested negative for coronavirus last week – though some administrative staff are off work as a precaution. It is felt that a decision regarding the fate of this season would be useful and allow the necessary preparation to begin but that it is unlikely the requisite 14 league clubs will agree on any one outcome this week. Simon Burnton
West Ham
Karren Brady, West Ham’s vicechair, says the “only fair and reasonable thing to do is declare the whole season null and void.” The club’s manager, David Moyes, and his assistants were forced to self-isolate for seven days after coming into contact with Mikel Arteta, who has tested positive for the virus, but they did not display any symptoms and neither have any of the players. West Ham have overseen a “deep clean” of their stadium and all training facilities, with the players due back in later this week. All training will be in the open air, with input from the medical team. DH
Wolves
No Wolves player has reported any symptoms that would require isolation or treatment, and Nuno Espírito Santo and his team continue to train as normal at Compton Park. But the rest of the club has practically been placed into lockdown, with Molineux closed at least until 4 April, all administrative staff ordered to work from home and the club shop, ticket office and conference facilities shut. The chairman, Jeff Shi, posted a message on the club’s website urging fans not to “underestimate” the virus, explaining that his discussions with family and colleagues in China “afford me an acute awareness of the virus’s threat and impact”. PD
ball clubs who have long been pushing for a lucrative breakaway league may, in the current leadership vacuum, spot their moment to strike?
How to solve the fixture gridlock when football finally resumes? One of the solutions being mooted is temporarily scrapping the League Cup or doing away with FA Cup replays – two moves, you will notice, many clubs have been tacitly advocating for years.
How to save lower-league clubs facing the loss of crucial match-day revenue? Simple: “strategic partnerships” with larger clubs that could over time turn them into de facto subsidiaries or feeders.
How to rationalise the truncated cricket season? Pare back the County Championship and the Blast, or – as the former England and Wales Cricket Board director Andy Nash believes will happen – merge the latter competition with the Hundred, recasting it not just as the centrepiece of the summer but the financial lifeline for an ailing game.
With the help of an overactive imagination and a long period of selfisolation, you could probably come up with a few more. If this strikes you as fanciful, premature, the crackpot ramblings of the sportswriter with no sport to write about, then fine. But consider this, too: for the next few weeks, perhaps even months, the power brokers of sport – administrators and executives, sponsors and speculators, agents and marketers – will be at a loose end. Nothing to do but plot and strategise and kick around ideas. And then ask yourself a question: how far do you trust these people to act in the best interests of the sport you love?
Might big European football clubs find this is their moment to form a breakaway league?
three times in its 181-year history and his third victory came in his fifth run in the race.
Red Rum’s third victory came at a difficult time in the National’s history, when the racecourse had been sold to a property developer and was expected to close. It has since enjoyed a huge resurgence, with its Ladies’ Day drawing
ther directives from governments and local authorities, EPCR, in conjunction with the relevant leagues and unions, remains committed to trying to find a solution that will enable it to complete
behind closed doors. But things happened fast, and not just in football, so those doors closed to players too. Just like front doors all over the country. Three hundred people are dead, which makes even discussing the rest of it feel absurd and the idea that there could have been games plain bizarre.
Slowly, the seriousness of it all imposed itself on people. Slowly, it was imposed upon people by others. Slowly? Quite fast, in fact. It just feels like a long time already. People were asked to be responsible, to take collective care. Then they were told to be: recommendations became rules. Football clubs and players played a part: theirs are voices that are heard. “Players can think ‘we’re young, it probably won’t affect us,’ but we all have to think of people with illnesses, people who are older,” Robles says.
Nor are they immune, sportsmen suddenly made mortal. Or a little more mortal, anyway. Real Madrid’s training ground was vacated and locked down after a basketball player tested positive, the team sent home on Thursday. Valencia have five positive cases, three of them players: Ezequiel Garay, José Luis Gayá and Eliaquim Mangala. Alavés have two among the staff: the players will all be tested on Monday. It’s not in their hands. Asked on Thursday what happens now, one first division coach summed it up: “God knows.” On Friday, players were sent home. Coaches were too. Most were told it would be two weeks at least.
One first division club is, supposedly, returning to training on Tuesday. They won’t. Games will not return for at least two weeks, and increasingly people wonder if they will return at all this season. There are few real expectations at the moment. “It’s 15 days to start with and then it will depend on the analyses made by the health authorities, on the numbers,” Robles says. “It’s not about the football: it’s about people, health. It’s beyond us.”
The general population had already been asked to work from home if possible. Footballers did so, and encouraged others to follow. There were videos from their houses. Sergio Ramos on a treadmill. Takashi Inui doing kick ups in his living room. Iago Aspas watching Paw Patrol. “Now is the time to be responsible,” Lionel Messi tweeted. “Stay at home,” Diego Simeone said, and when he says something you do it.
“I’m staying at home” became the hashtag, which is quite an ask for a place like Spain that lives outside. This is mostly a country of small flats in big blocks, and one that lives outside: out for breakfast, out for coffee, out for an aperitivo, out for lunch, out for everything. Terraces are packed usually, but now they have been packed away.
The Real Sociedad defender Diego Llorente, like others, was reminding people that this isn’t a holiday. At first some, lamentably, seemed to be treating it as such. Some departed cities heading for the coast. No more. There are army vehicles on the roads. This is real, even if it remains surreal. The numbers are terrifying – not least because no one believes they are the real numbers. How could they be? And how, and when, does this end?
Businesses and shops closed. Bars and restaurants were not allowed to open. The government declared a state of alarm on Saturday, banning travel. There was a lockdown. You can only leave the house to go to the supermarket, pharmacy, doctors, press kiosks, or tobacconists, and you must go straight back again after. You can go out to walk the dog, if you have one, but fast and not in groups.
In shops, some shelves were empty, queues long and everyone a metre apart. It was hard not to imagine this as the opening scenes of some disaster movie. Hard too not to glare at that bloke fingering all the fucking fruit before he bought it.
It sounds daft but you don’t expect the apocalypse on a glorious sunny day. It was lovely out, but you couldn’t be there. Police cars circulated slowly. Take the rubbish out, spend 30 seconds beyond the confines of your front door, and you feel like a fugitive so you scurry home fast. That was Sunday – although a lot of it broke down again on Monday as many made their way to “essential” work, making so much of the weekend’s precaution seem pointless.
Everyone was inside. Spain is also the noisiest country in the world, or so they say, which made the silence louder. “These are strange days,” Torres says. “It creates a kind of psychosis because you don’t know what’s going on and you’ve never experienced a situation like this.”
Some came together even as they were forced apart. All across the country there are videos of blocks where from balconies and windows they sing songs, play games, shout across to each other. At 10pm on Saturday and Sunday, what would have been half time in Celta-Villarreal and the Seville derby, people came to their balconies and applauded doctors, nurses and health professionals, underpaid and underresourced heroes.
Text messages are filled with daft jokes – which quickly dry up when positives are confirmed in the group – as well as books to read, films to watch, series to download, things to do. Friends made great suggestions that will be enjoyable discoveries. Self-discovery too, perhaps. Is it silly to think we might be better after this? But, then, concentrating isn’t easy when that phone is there at your side, news coming in, getting worse by the minute.
Could that sporting addiction even be broken, football’s grip slipping? Unlikely, and the evidence so far suggests not. It’s too easy to say sport doesn’t matter: it does matter, it does mean something, if only because we ascribe it meaning. It takes you someplace better. It fills our lives, and without it there is a hole there. Right now, everyone could so with something to fill that space. And football tried, even in the absence of games. Where better to seek solace? Football books, football articles, football films.
On Saturday, Leganés live tweeted their match against Valladolid – a huge relegation six-pointer which didn’t happen. It was a public service broadcast, designed to send a message too. Leganés won, which Valladolid suspected they would and which they could afford to laugh about after, 90 minutes filled with something enjoyably silly.
Óscar scored the winner, “taking advantage of the social distancing” advised because of the virus. The VAR intervened almost 30 times. Cadena Ser radio released commentary of the goal that wasn’t and AS wrote a match report, thanking Leganés for the laughs. God knows, everyone needed it. Other clubs did similar things, social media taking them into homes that people couldn’t leave. Real Oviedo replayed their 1992 win over Madrid. Better times.
Asked how he was getting on, the captain of a first division club said: “day one, fine ... let’s see on day 15.” Another admitted he was climbing the walls already. Like anyone else, footballers get bored, maybe even more so. Sportsmen don’t do sedentary. So, what do they do? “Watch series, read a bit, try to find a way of making use of the time,” Torres says.
“My daughter keeps me entertained,” Robles says, “but it’s hard to get your mind around that you’ll be stuck inside for 15 days, or more; it’s not easy. I’m on Netflix and films and watching a lot of telly, just like anyone. I’ve been going out onto the balcony too. You’ve got to get some air, a bit of sunshine. It’s not good to be indoors on the sofa all day.”
Clubs have sent training programmes. Leganés even made theirs open to the public, the fitness coach Pol Llorente leading online sessions each morning. It’s fun and the players are getting involved, joking and winding each other up, but it’s not the same of course.
“It’s important not to lose muscle tone so you do some aerobic work, keep your strength up, because we have to be ready if and when they tell us we’re starting again,” Robles says. “Betis gave us plans. It’s mostly core work, some upper body but they know that there are materials that we haven’t got at home.” There’s no goalkeeper training as such but it won’t be long, he laughs, before he reaches the point when he gets his girlfriend to throw a ball at him and he’s diving across the living room, making saves on the sofa.
“We have to be responsible, look after ourselves, train as best we can,” says Torres. “And that includes your mind – that’s important. The main thing is listen to the health authorities and stay at home because if they say that’s the best thing, it’s the best thing. It’s a real pity to miss the derby but we have to work at home and be ready because hopefully it will be back – and we have to be back too.”
“Our membership includes many players who are not hugely well-paid, we all know how tightly many clubs’ budgets are managed, so the social and economic consequences could be profound if we don’t manage this crisis properly.”
As European countries contemplate a near-shutdown of their wider economies with dire results for millions of people’s livelihoods, Baer-Hoffman pointed out that football is one sector with the wealth to look after itself.
“Football must look at how it can sustain clubs, to make use of its liquidity to maintain its pyramid. After the recent period where we’ve had arguments about the football calendar after 2024, this presents a need to have a responsible dialogue and work together. We will be making these points with Uefa and hoping these conversations can happen very soon.”
The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, will host the video conference with all 55 of Europe’s football associations, the European Club Association and European Leagues.
One senior figure who will be involved in the video conference said that beyond the expected postponement of the Euros, he did not expect any firm decisions to be taken, about the Champions League, Europa League, or any other competition.
It remains so uncertain when football may be able to resume in any kind of normal way, he said, that different potential scenarios are more likely to be discussed, and commitments given to work further on them, as the virus, and consequent restrictions, take their course.
The government in Switzerland, where Uefa, Fifa and approximately 60 other sports governing bodies are based, declared a state of emergency on Monday until 19 April, shutting all shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities and tightening travel restrictions on its borders.