Premier League season will be finished behind closed doors
2 May 2020, 09:20
EPL season could be completed behind closed doors
Depending on the government's lockdown easing plans coming on Thursday, the Premier League could be finished in July.
Rob Maul is the associate sports features editor at The Sun and he spoke to Andrew Castle to brief the public on the plans Premier League officials to finish the league season – provided the government allow a lockdown ease.
Mr Maul insisted that the plan should never be to call the season off. He told Andrew that it could lead to massive legal issues for the league, coming from clubs who may feel as though they're in with a chance to lift out of the relegation zone in their final games.
"Sport is coming back, but it's coming back slowly. It's truncated and unfortunately for your listeners it's coming back without fans." The sports writer revealed that the main proposal of the Premier League was to play games behind closed doors in an effort to maintain social distancing.
Mr. Maul told Andrew that "if govt say we're gonna release and ease the lockdown then football can begin to implement their proposals" including some initial dates. "Training resumes May 18th and the season begins June 12th" according to the league proposals.
The associate sports features editor told LBC that "there's so much money involved in football, they have to find a way" to resume the season. Because of the coronavirus lockdown, there have been issues in what could happen to the plans if there is a second wave of the virus.
Andrew admitted that there are "so many implications about the whole thing" and asked the sports writer if he expects football clubs to go bust.
Mr. Maul admitted that "we could be talking in 12 months time where clubs just go to the wall" because of the revenue lost by teams as a result of games taking place behind closed doors.
The writer admitted that "another wave of coronavirus could kill the whole season" and would bring the effort to restart into question.
Dejectedly, Mr. Maul told Andrew that he "wouldn't be surprised if there was no football until the end of the summer", warning that to risks could outweigh the benefits of opening up the football season again.
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