Should English Premier League restart its 2019/20 season in June 2020?

[MenInG]

Premier League clubs have unanimously voted to resume contact training as 'Project Restart' moves to phase two.

Players will be able to "train as a group and engage in tackling while minimising unnecessary close contact," a statement said.

Discussions continue on plans to resume the season when "conditions allow", it added.

Premier League players and staff will continue to be tested twice a week for coronavirus.

So far eight people have tested positive after 1,744 tests across the league. The third round of results is expected to be released on Wednesday.

The decision to return to contact training was agreed following consultation with clubs, players, managers, the Professional Football Association (PFA), the League Managers Association (LMA) and the government.

Plans for the third phase of Project Restart include a step towards normal training and build-up to competitive games.

Speaking on Friday, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told BBC Sport the league was "as confident as we can be" about resuming the season in June, with 92 fixtures still to play.

Squads started non-contact training last week for the first time since the Premier League was suspended on 13 March because of the pandemic.

Clubs will discuss further issues on Thursday including the use of neutral stadiums, how to decide the season in the event of curtailment and voting on rebates to broadcasters.

 

[The Viper]

Liverpool among clubs to argue against paying £330m rebate to broadcasters

A group of clubs, led by Liverpool, will argue against paying a £330m rebate to Sky and other broadcasters at a meeting to discuss the matter on Thursday, despite the Premier League’s recommendation that it should be accepted.

The finance directors of all 20 clubs were informed on Wednesday of the sum by the Premier League, whose head of broadcasting, Paul Molnar, is leading negotiations. Sky is the prime broadcaster with rights to show 128 live matches a season, followed by BT Sport with 52, and Amazon with 20.

Because of the rights terms, 50% of money is divided equally with 25% awarded for live appearances and the other 25% dependent on league finishing position. This means the top six Premier League clubs will have to pay more back – around £30m each – compared to the approximate £10.75m by the other 14. Broadcasters have suggested staggering payments of the rebate over the next two seasons to help clubs hit financially by the pandemic.

Liverpool’s chairman, Tom Werner, questioned the rebate at a previous conference with the Premier League executive and he will do so again when the meeting commences on Thursday at 11am, with growing dismay at the size of sums involved.

A rebate is being sought because of contractual obligations going unfulfilled following the suspension of football in England in mid-March. The broadcasters also argue that given the remainder of the season will be behind closed doors should it, as hoped, be played out next month, the value of the product they have paid many millions for will be devalued.

Liverpool, along with a number of other clubs – Tottenham and West Ham among them – dispute this idea. They believe fans not being able to attend games will increase the premium on live televised matches, with interest in any game shown heightened by the paucity of other live sports. The temporary lifting of the 3pm blackout on matches in the UK means the broadcasters will be able to show more live and clubs believe the value of their investment will increase.

As things stand, Sky and BT have rights to 47 remaining games – the remaining 45 will be shared, with Sky wanting to broadcast 32, BT Sport wanting to show eight and the remaining five being split between Amazon and the BBC.

The desire of broadcasters to leverage dressing-room and technical-area cameras will also receive pushback from the clubs, with the stance being that if agreed now it will be difficult to deny similar access when the next rights sales occur.

Despite opposition from some clubs to paying the £330m rebate, David Kogan, who was the Premier League’s chief media rights adviser from 1998 to 2015 and a key architect of its global financial success, insists the full amount will have to be met. He told the Guardian: “The clubs are going to have to pay it whatever it is and there will be a formula that will be followed. Sooner or later they’re just going to have to pay the money out. They’ll have insurance, I imagine, to do that.”

Clubs will already be more concerned, Kogan believes, over whether or not the next round of TV rights, due to be negotiated this year, will match the £9bn generated for the three-year period up until 2022 given the fallout from the current crisis. “What is the Premier League’s capacity to earn another £9bn-£10bn over a three-year period?” he said.

“First of all, there’s the UK broadcasters: why would Sky, now owned by Comcast, or BT, necessarily want to spend £5bn on these rights when there’s very little competition? Secondly, there’s 200 other overseas broadcasters. If they’ve been affected by the pandemic, which they will have been, why are they going to go on bidding 20% more they’ve been doing up until now?

“If the Premier League isn’t going to bring in that money, where is the flexibility to find new cash? Ticket sales? Clubs are already costing their fans a fortune. Hospitality? It’s already been priced to the max. So the only way that clubs can then survive is by looking at costs. And the massive costs are agents’ fees and players, and at that point you’re affecting the product.”

New ideas may have to be considered, Kogan believes, to keep broadcasting deals on a par with what preceded the pandemic. “Saturday 3pm has been the holy grail of football rights selling for 50 years – [showing games now] might set a precedent,” he said. “Whatever the history used to be, money is a huge incentive for change and it’s not just the PL [that’s] going to lose money because of the pandemic, the FA will, too. I wouldn’t count it out at all.”

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...aying-330m-rebate-broadcasters-premier-league

 

[MenInG]

The Premier League have confirmed four positive tests for coronavirus from three clubs after the third round of mass testing.

 

[MenInG]

Watford captain Troy Deeney says he is open to returning to training after holding positive talks with the government's deputy chief medical officer.

Deeney refused to go back to work when the Premier League launched Project Restart, explaining his primary concern is the health of his son, who was born prematurely and has breathing problems.

"I only said that I wasn't going back for the first week, Deeney told CNN Sport, after Premier League clubs unanimously approved a return to contact training. "People took that as I'll never go back.

"But I'm potentially going to go in next week. Even if it's just to have a conversation. I've already been in dialogue with all the players and all the management."

Deeney also raised concerns about the disproportionate amount of coronavirus deaths in the BAME community.

However, some of his fears have now been alleviated after a few conversations with Dr Jonathan Van-Tam, the government's deputy chief medical officer.

He added: "Jonathan is doing really well, again, not only answering questions. He has also been honest enough to say at times: 'I don't have the answer'.

"The first conversation I had with Jonathan was maybe three weeks ago. The last conversation we had was on Friday and he had so much more information, so much more detailed analysis.

"So it just filled me with confidence that he's trying his best to make sure that we have all the information. The risk factor will be down to players."

Deeney also revealed he has been the subject of abuse from online trolls and had people shouting at him in the street after voicing his concerns about Project Restart.

"I saw some comments in regards to my son, people saying: 'I hope your son gets coronavirus'," he said. "In a time where it's all about mental health and everyone says: 'Speak up, speak out,' Danny Rose spoke out ... and I spoke out and we just get absolutely hammered and battered for it."

https://www.skysports.com/football/...aining-return-after-positive-government-talks

 

[Firebat]

Watford captain Troy Deeney says he is open to returning to training after holding positive talks with the government's deputy chief medical officer.

 

[Firebat]

BREAKING: Premier League football to return on 17 June

Premier League football is set to restart on 17 June, the BBC has learned.

The first games are understood to be Aston Villa v Sheffield Utd and Manchester City v Arsenal - the games in hand.

A full fixture list will then be played on the weekend beginning 19 June. Clubs are still discussing the idea at a meeting now, but it is understood all have agreed in principle at this stage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">THE PREMIER LEAGUE WILL RESTART ON 17 JUNE.<br><br>Full story ➡ <a href="https://t.co/eY81UffpPK">https://t.co/eY81UffpPK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bbcfootball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bbcfootball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EPL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EPL</a> <a href="https://t.co/uc6QrC4JEk">pic.twitter.com/uc6QrC4JEk</a></p>— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1266011232060018695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[liam26]

BREAKING: Premier League football to return on 17 June

Premier League football is set to restart on 17 June, the BBC has learned.

The first games are understood to be Aston Villa v Sheffield Utd and Manchester City v Arsenal - the games in hand.

A full fixture list will then be played on the weekend beginning 19 June. Clubs are still discussing the idea at a meeting now, but it is understood all have agreed in principle at this stage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">THE PREMIER LEAGUE WILL RESTART ON 17 JUNE.<br><br>Full story ➡ <a href="https://t.co/eY81UffpPK">https://t.co/eY81UffpPK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bbcfootball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bbcfootball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EPL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EPL</a> <a href="https://t.co/uc6QrC4JEk">pic.twitter.com/uc6QrC4JEk</a></p>— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1266011232060018695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Very good News.. Hope Cricket Follows Suit when its a mostly non-contact Sport.

 

[Rana]

Very good News.. Hope Cricket Follows Suit when its a mostly non-contact Sport.

Stop rubbing it in man. Cricket is not returning in England until 1st August

 

[BoomBoomCricket]

Stop rubbing it in man. Cricket is not returning in England until 1st August

That is domestic cricket.
Plans to hold internationals from July 8.