PREMIER LEAGUE chiefs have been handed a four-week Uefa deadline to produce their restart plans.
The directive has come from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and general secretary Theodore Theodoridis.
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Uefa chiefs like president Aleksander Ceferin want the Prem to set out within the next month their plan to resume the seasonCredit: PA:Press Association
Jurgen Klopp faces an anxious wait to see if his Liverpool side can confirm Premier League title glory on the pitch this seasonCredit: PA:Empics Sport
But the chances of any football in Europe getting the green light have suffered a blow.
A German virus expert suggested players would still be at Covid-19 risk, despite the Bundesliga’s safety plans for resuming on May 9, while Italy’s resumption plans were deemed “insufficient”.
SunSport reported Uefa’s revised August 2 deadline for seasons across the continent to be completed.
But a new circular stated: “National Associations and/or Leagues should be in a position to communicate to Uefa by May 25, 2020, the planned restart of their domestic competitions — including the date of restart and the competition format.”
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Uefa maintains its view that the “ideal scenario” is for domestic leagues to be completed “enabling clubs to qualify for Uefa competitions on merit”.
Their stance would only relate to European qualification slots and not the confirmation of title winners or relegation issues, which remain for leagues to decide.
Nevertheless, SunSport revealed the opposition from Prem chiefs to any form of play-off system being brought in.
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Uefa also acknowledges that Government orders or health and safety concerns may prevent
leagues from restarting, with qualification then to be decided “based on sporting merit to the extent that is possible in these circumstances”.
And despite potential restart dates being mooted for the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1, the scale of the problems was highlighted by German virologist Professor Uwe Liebert.
He said: “We don’t know about the long-term effects of an illness with Covid-19.
“You can only detect an infection after 48 hours.
“All people in contact with a player are first-degree contacts. So everyone would have to go into quarantine.”
And Liebert’s concerns were echoed in Italy, where Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said: “Only when the protocol is agreed, can we decide whether or not to restart football.”
Spadafora also suggested the season would have to be cancelled if another player tested positive.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
