THE Premier League has been offered Wembley and St George’s Park by the FA as venues to finish the season as talks post coronavirus go on.
With most sides having nine or ten games remaining, clubs are desperate to finish the season to avoid repercussions with TV companies – that could see them have to pay back huge sums to some of the networks.
The Premier League has been offered Wembley and St George’s Park by the FA to finish the season
According to Sky Sports, the Premier League’s director of football, Richard Garlick along with the league’s medical advisor Mark Gillett, are liaising with clubs on a regular basis on player welfare and what could realistically be expected of footie aces if the season were to resume.
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The FA is offering both Wembley and St Georges Park – which could potentially be used to stage up to four games a day to make it happen.
Wembley previously acted as temporary home to Tottenham between August 2017 and March 2019.
The use of the venues like St George’s Park, would enable a number of games to be staged on the same day and having a 228-room hotel on site for players and officials to stay would be an added bonus
This will be music to the ears of Prem clubs who potentially face a whopping £750million fine from Sky Sports and BT Sport if coronavirus ends the season early.
No official return date has yet been put on the Premier League which is still suspended indefinitely and many clubs are already struggling to cope with the loss of matchday revenues.
Burnley chairman Mike Garlick has warned the club will go bust in August if the football lockdown has not ended by then with £50million of revenue and TV cash on the line.
And Bournemouth have expressed similar concerns.
Only West Ham and Southampton have so far agreed wage cuts with their players and Tottenham, for example, are missing out on £5million revenue per home game.
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More clubs are expected to announce agreements with players over wage deferrals and wage cuts in the coming week.
Newcastle, Norwich, Bournemouth and Tottenham have all furloughed members of their non-playing staff while Liverpool did so before backtracking.
The Mirror reported last week that there is a ‘tentative’ plan for the top flight to resume behind closed doors after the Premier League charted out an agreement with senior officials on a resumption of matches.
It is thought this Friday’s video conference with Prem shareholders will spend more time discussing the various options for a return to playing matches.
However the number of confirmed cases and deaths from coronavirus have continued to skyrocket as Britain braces for “the peak” of the pandemic – which is going to greatly impact when the season resumes.
Should the virus continue to sweep across the UK with increased devastating impacts, the Premier League is in no doubt that a return would have to be pushed back further.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
