Premier League has put forward ‘Project Restart’ through which they intend to resume the 2019-20 season and finish the remaining 92 matches in time.
And on Monday, the UK government gave a massive boost as they announced that the matches could resume from June 1st if all the necessary safety guidelines are being followed.
While this is great news for all the Premier League fans but on the very same day, the PL shareholders and the clubs held a meeting in which they discussed a number of matters including the prospect of playing at neutral venues.
But speaking after the meeting, Chief Executive Richard Masters hinted that not a lot of clubs are interested at playing their matches at neutral venues.
“Everybody would prefer to play at home and away if at all possible, and it’s clear to see some clubs feel more strongly about that than others,” he said after the meeting, as reported by the BBC.
“We are in contact with the authorities and listening to that advice, while also representing club views in those discussions.
“Since the disease became an issue we’ve been talking to the authorities about the conditions in which we could get the Premier League back up and running and taking all that advice on board, but it is an ongoing dialogue.
“But all must be cognizant of what authorities are telling us, and we’ll continue with that consultation.”
Will the Premier League scrap the idea of the neutral venues?
Now according to a report in the Daily Mail, at least two-thirds of the Premier League clubs are opposing this idea and amongst them, the names of Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are shining brightly.
The report claims: “Sportsmail can reveal that at least two-thirds of the 20 clubs on Monday’s conference call — including Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal — expressed opposition to the plan to play all the remaining 92 matches at neutral venues. This is a significant shift in opinion, which led the Premier League to pledge to discuss the matter again with the Government.”
As it is, the decisions taken under Project Restart were never going to be a majority voting system and now that 2/3rd of the EPL sides are not eager to play at neutral venues, the Premier League authorities might have no other option but to scrap this plan and follow the usual home and away format.
But what remains to be seen is how the government and the medical advisors react to this whole scenario since if all the 20 venues are active them it could be a nightmare situation for all the medical staff and possibly for all the clubs.
