After yesterday's conference call between it's club's, the Premier League has put in place it's intended schedule to complete the season.

The Premier League is pencilling in June 11th as the date that it will restart the season and will then look to complete the remaining matches in a five week period, but it has reiterated that the season will not resume until the government declares it is safe to do so.

With the latest lockdown period in place until May 7th the club's are being told to work to a plan that they could be allowed to resume training shortly after that date and that would give them a four week period to get their squads fit for the restart.

Initially training could be controlled to keep players apart and without physical contact and it and all squads will be tested for the corona virus ahead of the start.

They would then be asked to play the remaining 9 games in a five week period, this would be gruelling, but in reality not much more than happens at various stages of the normal season when it is not uncommon for teams to play 7 games in that period.

It is thought that given the rest period the players would have had by then they will be rested enough and refreshed to be able to play this burst of games in a short time before then having another rest before the season starts.

Games will initially at least be played behind closed door and with all players, coaches and match officials having been tested for coronavirus.

These protocols would only be adopted when tests are more readily available to key workers and the public.

The hope would be that at least some of the matches will eventually be able to be played in front of a crowd, but again it could be that attendances are limited to season ticket holders only to help reduce potential contact between fans, for Saints that would perhaps mean 19,000 or so in the stadium less than 2/3 of the stadiums capacity.

The next Premier League shareholders' meeting is on May 1, when the situation will be assessed once again, by then the picture will be far clearer and perhaps dates will be revised, but for now it is important to have a strategy in place, albeit a fluid one that can be changed and revised as the situation dictates.

UEFA wants all domestic leagues to be completed by August if possible so it can hold the Champions League final in Istanbul on August 29.

The final was due to take place at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on May 30 but, under one of the new proposals which UEFA will discuss next week, the final would be moved to Saturday, August 29 at the same venue.

Photo: Action Images

legod7 added 13:10 - Apr 18 Personally I don’t think that the Premier League or the EFL should be talking about restarting the season. If they try to then I believe it would prolong this pandemic even more. It should be called null and void.End of.I am one of millions who have been told to self isolate because of underlying medical conditions and I don’t want anything to potentially increase the spread of Covid 19.

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halftimeorange added 13:54 - Apr 18 Money, money, money! They all want the TV payouts. Trouble is a lot of ST holders might feel a better football investment is a subscription to Sky, BT, Virgin or Amazon especially if their employers or their personal investments are on the rocks. Although we are all missing live entertainment and social contact, football pales into insignificance in the light of what is happening to our world.

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mattthelegend added 16:53 - Apr 18 I don’t understand the obsession with completing the league, do the Premier League live in an alternate universe where Covid-19 doesn’t exist? We are all being told to self isolate and self distance and this will not change until a vaccine is found, so why for FFS are they insisting on completing the season. Null and void is the safest and most sensible outcome. The Premier League have been gorging at the money trough for too long now and looks like they will have to reign in the obscene spending that has carried on since the its start, time to join the rest of us mere mortals.

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SaintPaulVW added 17:39 - Apr 18 Even with the money available to the Premier League, there is no escaping football is a contact sport. Are they going to play and train together in masks and latex gloves? How do you defend a free kick while standing 2m away from each other? Are the squads and all support staff going to self isolate to a NASA astronaut level and have no contact with the outside world eg families, hangers on etc etc for at least 7 weeks? Any tight 'manageable' schedule will easily be put out of kilter if just one team is forced to self isolate to any large degree At the moment, I can't see this happening and I still think 20/21 is a long shot too. The basic restrictions that prevent the virus spreading aren't going anywhere until a vaccine is found.

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1teeminants added 23:28 - Apr 20 Germany , China, New Zealand, Denmark and other countries are all slowly getting back to normal so what makes people think things will be so much worse in the UK in a couple of months time ffs
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AirFlorida added 18:33 - Apr 21 Bless them for getting their pencils out but the restarting of the Premier League is not under their control. They may as well pencil in a date for every month of this year! Only when we start to come out of lockdown will we know what world we are facing. People talk about playing behind closed doors but forget the fact that the real risk to the players is from the opposition and perhaps even their own team! It's depressingly possible that we may not see this season finished or have a 2020-21 season. The world ain't going back to normal after this until a vaccine is in place so God knows how clubs are going to survive 😔

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