Premier League, EFL and WSL football will not restart before 30 April
The provisional date of the first weekend in April for the resumption of men’s and women’s professional football has been pushed almost a month further until “no earlier than 30 April”, with the season’s finish “extended indefinitely”, the Premier League, Football Association and EFL announced on Thursday.
A joint statement, which emphasised that public health was the overriding priority in the coronavirus cirisis, was issued after an emergency conference call with the 20 Premier League clubs.
Premier League sources said no club raised the idea of calling the season finished or null and void, as was canvassed by the West Ham vicechairman Karren Brady, among others, at the weekend following the initial shock of the game’s postponement. The football authorities across Europe have resolved to finish the club season if at all possible, a determination focused by the teleconference held by Uefa on Tuesday with all 55 national FAs which decided to postpone this summer’s European Championship to 2021.
In their joint statement the leagues and FA, with the Professional Footballers’ Association and League Managers Association, said: “We are in unprecedented times and our thoughts are with everyone affected by Covid-19. We are united in our commitment to finding ways of resuming the 2019-20 football season and ensuring all domestic and European club league and cup matches are played as soon as it is safe and possible to do so.
“We have collectively supported Uefa in postponing Euro 2020 to create space in the calendar to ensure domestic and European club league and cup matches have an increased opportunity to be played and, in doing so, maintain the integrity of each competition.
“We have collectively agreed that the professional game in England will be further postponed until no earlier than 30 April.”
The FA said that it had “extended indefinitely” the date for the season to conclude, after its board sanctioned a relaxation of the standard 1 June finish date set by the international fixtures calendar, given the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic. No date, even provisional, was given by the leagues for the season to be concluded, as they recognised that the whole of society is in dreadfully uncertain times and any resumption, most probably behind closed doors, is wholly dependent on the health of players and club staff, and on general government health advice and policies.
The EFL is understood to be actively examining whether it can make use of testing equipment for Covid-19, because testing via the NHS is limited in numbers and restricted to people showing symptoms. If it is possible for footballers and club staff to be tested without impacting on the number of tests available generally, the leagues will explore whether it can stage matches behind closed doors between clubs whose squads have tested free of the virus. Potential scheduling formats are being sketched out, including playing successive matches more rapidly than normal, possibly with a number of clubs all at Wembley or another single venue.The emerging resolve to finish the season is not only due to it being the best option for “sporting integrity” and morale, but also to resolve the blackout being suffered by broadcasters who may need to recoup money lost from subscribers. In discussions with Sky and BT Sport, the leagues have stressed the intention to somehow give the broadcasters the remaining matches to show, give people some live sport to watch, and also not leave a major financial problem to be resolved.The FA board meeting, a conference call that lasted four hours, heard presentations setting out different degrees of financial hit the FA itself could suffer during the crisis. The governing body, which is responsible for administering grassroots football and has ambitious plans to wholly upgrade facilities nationally, will look to keep broadcast income by getting the FA Cup completed, but is very likely to lose it from England matches scheduled for June and from the Euros. As Wembley now has to reschedule until next year its host matches for the Euros, which included the final, the FA has to also extend restrictions on the stadium hosting concerts and other events which make money.Uefa did state a hoped-for finish date of 30 June for European club seasons when football’s European governing body postponed the Euros, which were due to be held from 11 June to 11 July in 12 different cities. Fifa, though, said on Wednesday that it had set up a working group with Uefa and the other continental federations to examine how to relax normal player registration rules if the season, and players’ contracts, need to be extended beyond 30 June.Running players’ contracts beyond that standard contractual termination date is said by clubs to be extremely complicated, particularly where players have agreed to join other clubs, which could affect the fairness of continuing with competitions into July if that becomes possible. However other senior figures are stressing that this can be worked through, as their overriding priority is to finish this season, however long it might take, and worry about next season after that.“The progress of Covid-19 remains unclear and we can reassure everyone the health and welfare of players, staff and supporters are our priority,” the statement said. “We will continue to follow government advice and work collaboratively to keep the situation under review and explore all options available to find ways of resuming the season when the conditions allow.”