Sign up to get Today’s Best Cartoons in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Premier League will aim to complete season by 30 June
Top-flight bosses to pencil in the start of May as a resumption date for fixtures
It’s expected that the clubs will agree to try and complete the season by 30 June, in line with other European domestic leagues which, like the Premier League, have gone into temporary lockdown.
Uefa’s decision earlier this week to postpone this summer’s European Championship until 2021 has made it possible for domestic leagues to reschedule their competitions, and there is a growing determination among Premier League clubs to complete the season.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Since then, however, and tapping into the determination shown by the likes of Serie A in Italy, there is a mounting resolve to finish the campaign.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For analysis of the biggest sport stories - and a concise, balanced take on the week’s news - try The Week magazine.Start your trial today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
(Image credit: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Reds on the brink
Sixteen of the Premier League clubs have nine games remaining, and no club is more anxious to complete the season than Liverpool, who could clinch their first league title in 30 years with just two more victories.
Sign up to get Today’s Best Cartoons in your inbox
Funniest, thought-provoking editorial cartoons, delivered each weekday
The Guardian says that Premier League sources have told them that when the decision was taken last week to suspend the competition, “the clubs did not discuss the thorny question of how to decide finishing places if the season is not completed”.
That encouraged speculation - exploited by a newspaper column by West Ham’s vice-chairman Karren Brady - that the season should be considered null and void.
But having recovered from the gravity of the situation the clubs are more bullish about the chances of completing the season, particularly as they have until the end of June.
May day
The Premier League’s football department has been testing scenarios for scheduling games once it is deemed safe to resume sport.
It’s expected that today’s meeting will push back the 3 April deadline until the end of the month, and pencil in the start of May as a resumption date for all fixtures, allowing the Premier League and the FA Cup to be played in May and June.
Also on the agenda at today’s video conference will be the looming financial crisis for the lower leagues.
While the Premier League’s TV and commercial deals will cushion them from adverse effects, the same does not apply for the English Football League (EFL).
The EFL is said to be in discussions with Sky and BT Sport about ways to help them survive the unprecedented crisis.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For analysis of the biggest sport stories - and a concise, balanced take on the week’s news - try The Week magazine.Start your trial today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
