Premier League planning resolution to end season early if Covid-19 forces halt
Premier League clubs will be presented with a resolution to accept the standings as final if Covid-19 forces next season to a halt with at least 50% of fixtures played. The plan, described by insiders as a worst-case scenario, is being pursued in the hope of preventing acrimony around how to determine final positions if coronavirus renders completing the campaign an impossibility.
A league working group is due to put the proposal to clubs on 3 September, with confidence high it will gain enough support. The title, European places and relegation would then be determined this way.
The intention of clubs would be to continue playing in the event of another Covid wave but a variety of scenarios will be discussed.
The Premier League completed last season’s matches but the challenges were significant. The league was suspended in mid-March and resumed on 17 June, with 92 fixtures remaining.
There is acknowledgement a coronavirus wave in winter, with considerably more matches outstanding, would deliver a more troublesome scenario. With that in mind, a working group was formed with the view to putting legislation in place.
The Scottish Premiership season of 2019-20 was curtailed amid much anger, which lingered throughout the break before the new campaign started on the first weekend in August.
At a meeting of clubs on Monday, the Scottish Professional Football League’s chief executive, Neil Doncaster, raised a plan equivalent to the Premier League’s as an option for 2020-21. With no legislation in place in Scotland regarding how to deal with significant fixture disruption, several clubs are known to want Doncaster and his board to put a number of options in place.