Premier League will ask the Government to reconsider their stance on using neutral venues to complete the season
The Premier League will ask the Government to reconsider their stance on using neutral venues to complete the season after it emerged that every top-flight club wants to use their own stadium.
Teams are still split over whether or not to finish the season in neutral venues after the latest round of talks on Monday but have decided to extend players’ contracts that were due to expire on June 30.
Executives from all 20 Premier League clubs held their latest video conference on Monday to discuss a range of matters regarding the suspended top-flight season.
Chief among them was Project Restart, and the plans for finishing the current 2019-20 campaign, but as of yet no final decision has been made on that.
A vote was initially scheduled for Monday’s crunch meeting, but that was moved back and is expected to now take place on May 18.
Clubs could still not come to an agreement on proposals to play out the remaining fixtures at neutral venues.
And Premier League chief Richard Masters later revealed: ‘We talked about neutral venues.
‘Obviously it is the preference of all our clubs to play at home if at all possible, but all must be cognisant of what authorities are telling us and we will continue with that conversation.’
The plan remains to resume the campaign on June 12, with stars and essential staff being tested for coronavirus twice a week and games played behind closed doors at neutral venues like Wembley or St George’s Park.
But it is reported Monday’s talks lasted just under four hours and there were no signs that any clubs had changed their minds on neutral venues, although talks did not get heated.
The Times claim the Premier League will now contact the Government to ask them to reconsider the need to use neutral venues. Germany’s Bundesliga is planning on restarting using home and away fixtures this weekend.
The Telegraph added that clubs with stadium sponsorship deals are increasingly concerned about the threat of either losing out on that money or having to pay back millions if their stadium is not used as one of the neutral venues.
The news of the stand-off is likely to infuriate police chiefs after Martin Roberts, the head of the UK’s football police unit, told clubs opposing plans to play at neutral grounds to ‘get a grip’ last week.
Deputy chief constable Roberts reminded those complaining about integrity issues that over 30,000 people in the UK have lost their lives as a result of coronavirus.
He said: ‘We need to temper things. When you see people arguing the integrity is so important that ‘we played them away and now it’s neutral’ or ‘they had their fans and we can’t have ours’ — it might be a big deal in football terms, but in broader society where we have lost 30,000 people and growing that’s not a big deal.
‘Some people in football need to get a grip and recognise there’s a bigger picture here.’
According to The Independent, clubs were also told at the very start of the meeting by the FA that the season must be settled by ‘sporting merit’.
That means if the remaining fixtures cannot be played out as usual, a method like points-per-game or the one used in France to devise a final table may come into play. It is claimed voiding the season ‘remains completely off the table’.
Also high on the agenda at Monday’s crunch meeting were player contracts, and a vote did take place on that.
Clubs gave the green light to temporarily extending the contracts of players that were up at the end of next month until the season can be completed.
Some of the high-profile names these rules apply to are the likes of Jan Vertonghen, Willian, Adam Lallana and Olivier Giroud.
The agreement also means players currently on loan at clubs can extend their stays as well, although ‘both clubs and the player must agree to the extension if two Premier League clubs are involved’.
There has been plenty of confusion over the Premier League’s plans, with pressure being applied on the English top flight to make a decision after France cancelled their season, while Germany press ahead with behind-closed-doors matches from next weekend.
Going into Monday’s meeting, it was understood six clubs – Aston Villa, Watford and Brighton the most vocal of them – were against playing games at neutral grounds and instead wanted to keep their home advantage.
There is a general consensus that the season will be finished one way or another when it is safe to do so, as England look to follow the likes of Germany rather than Holland and France, who have curtailed their own campaigns.
