The Premier League held crunch talks yesterday over getting this season back underway. The meeting lasted five hours from mid-morning through to mid-afternoon.
The most prominent news to emerge from the talks was with the decision to resume this season on Wednesday, June 17th. On that day, the four teams that have played only 28 games (Aston Villa vs. Sheffield, Manchester City vs. Arsenal).
The league will start matchday 30 the following weekend beginning Friday, June 19th.
All 92 games will be broadcast live on TV. Sky Sports will have 64 of the games, with 25 of them being free. The rest will be split between BT Sport, Amazon, and the BBC.
Here is the statement from Premier League chief Richard Masters:
“Today we have provisionally agreed to resume the Premier League on Wednesday 17 June.
“But this date cannot be confirmed until we have met all the safety requirements needed, as the health and welfare of all participants and supporters is our priority.
“Sadly, matches will have to take place without fans in stadiums, so we are pleased to have come up with a positive solution for supporters to be able to watch all the remaining 92 matches.
“The Premier League and our clubs are proud to have incredibly passionate and loyal supporters. It is important to ensure as many people as possible can watch the matches at home.
“We will continue to work step-by-step and in consultation with all our stakeholders as we move towards resuming the 2019/20 season.”
There are still some issues to be hashed out according to the Mirror. One of those is neutral venues with the police worried that some fixtures could cause fans to congregate at stadiums.
These are mainly derbies such as Everton vs. Liverpool, scheduled for June 20th. Some London derbies are also causing the authorities some concern.
What may happen is that certain contentious fixtures could be played at neutral grounds will the majority of matches keep the home and away schedule. However, that seems like it could put some clubs at a competitive disadvantage.
The remaining FA Cup fixtures have also been discussed and could be slotted into the schedule with a possible August 1st final at Wembley.
As Masters says, this is all contingent on the league meeting the safety requirements. Next Thursday, the league will hold another meeting and take a vote to formally move forward with the plan.
13 comments so far
geordietom
May 29, 2020 at 9:47 AM
Comment #1Bruce on SPN’s after the break …
DaveD1000
May 29, 2020 at 9:50 AM
Comment #2Susie Dent
@susie_dent
Word of the day is ‘bloviator’ (19th century): a speaker of empty rhetoric and blower of hot air; someone who talks a lot but says very little.
8:18 AM · May 29, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
the crown princes nashers
May 29, 2020 at 9:52 AM
Comment #3dave
that be all mps, pm and lords then 🙂
the crown princes nashers
May 29, 2020 at 9:53 AM
Comment #4happy birthday to your little one captain
the Northumbrian
May 29, 2020 at 9:53 AM
Comment #5Morning all hope everyone is well.
Another meeting Thursday!!!! Will that mean project restart has not been fully concluded so they won’t deal with the takeover?.
geordietom
May 29, 2020 at 9:54 AM
Comment #6dave …
it should be blogviator 😀
the crown princes nashers
May 29, 2020 at 9:55 AM
Comment #7just a thought here lads and lasses, from 1st of june the gov has said families can meet in groups of 6, so this has me thinking why dont they carry this off for the restart of the league then groups of 6 with few foot spaces so on and so on least there will be fans in the bloody grounds instead of daft bloody sound systems
DaveD1000
May 29, 2020 at 9:55 AM
Comment #8Tom
that was my thinking 🙂
DaveD1000
May 29, 2020 at 9:56 AM
Comment #9bus….
the Northumbrian
May 29, 2020 at 9:58 AM
Comment #10Just heard the Liverpool,Everton derby match might be played in Manchester so the pool could win the title in manc land.
Wat a sh!tter.
the crown princes nashers
May 29, 2020 at 9:58 AM
Comment #11think the captains bus has been nicked turns out the bus is nuclear powered 🙂
the crown princes nashers
May 29, 2020 at 9:58 AM
Comment #12ohh man shite would love that northumberian
the Northumbrian
May 29, 2020 at 10:04 AM
Comment #13Bus moved .