Efforts this week will intensify to find a way to finish the Premier League season after the government has announced its determination to see the return of football “as soon as possible,” reports The Guardian.
With Major League clubs scheduled to meet on Friday and a new committee also holding a meeting this week headed by the Department of Digital, Entertainment, Media, and Sport, government officials are proposing a “speed quickening.” Details on how professional sport could safely return remain unresolved.
On Friday the league will be supplying clubs with a plan to return to the training in full. After a weekend of news announcing the return of top-flight football, with a three-week pre-season starting in May and matches behind closed doors on 9 June, Secretary of Culture Oliver Dowden told parliament on Monday that he backed a swift return but with a prolog.
“I have been directly engaged in discussions with the Premier League to get football up and running as quickly as possible in order to help the entire football community,” he said. “But any such changes would naturally have to be consistent with public health guidelines.”
A conference will take place next week between the DCMS, representatives of Public Health England, and executives from Britain’s largest sports like the Premier League. They are supposed to think about how sport can resume safely. It is decided that all medical and safety proposals will be signed by PHE and the Government.
While the problems of staging sport are increasingly addressed, even behind closed doors, those which precede any restart of competition are also becoming the focus of attention.
West Ham, Brighton, and Arsenal on Monday reopened their social distance training facilities and Tottenham will do the same on Tuesday. Each club sets its own terms and conditions including time limits and a number of athletes.
