THE plan is that there will be no Premier League lockdown this winter.
That was the conclusion from Monday’s meeting of club representatives in which the matter was discussed.
Despite the fact that there have been 14 applications from PL clubs to postpone matches, ten approved (three on the day) and four rejected.
The strong signs are that PM Boris Johnson and his cabinet have decided, as a political variation of human VAR, that there will be no Covid special penalty for football, and play may continue at present.
No such luck in Scotland or Wales.
Matches will go ahead as long as you have 14 fit players, including anyone over the age of 21 to be placed on the available list if they have played one game (for any length of time) this season.
Matches in PL2 and EFL Trophy do not count.
Many have questioned low vaccination uptake among players. This is misguided — 84 per cent of squads and 92 per cent of backroom staff have had one, two/three doses of the vaccine.
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When you consider the single vaccine rate for 25 to 29-year-old’s in the country is 78.5 per cent, we are above the national average (the average age of PL players is 26.9).
There has to be more caution about predicting the short-term future for attending matches.
On Boxing Day turnstiles will revolve for all fans with evidence of vaccination or a negative test.
I hope this remains the case for the future as the Omicron variant takes a firmer grasp.
It isn’t full steam ahead, but the ship has not been anchored.
The Prem is being accused of greed but clubs experienced big financial losses in the 2019-2020 and 2020-21 seasons due to a drop in match-day revenue as a result of Covid restrictions.
This meant some players had to take wage deferrals and some clubs made staff redundant.
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As the English football pyramid receives a significant portion of funding from the Premier League, any detrimental impact of coronavirus on the PL has a knock-on effect.
We want to avoid all this happening again and playing is the only way to ensure it doesn’t.
The PL has also been accused of not protecting players’ welfare. Nothing could be further from the truth.
All our efforts go into ensuring players continue to train and play in a safe environment.
But they, like supermarket workers, tube and bus drivers, and nurses, want to continue with their jobs.
There is a second cause, too. Domestic fixtures are under pressure from the World Cup move to November-December.
The blowback is huge. Summer is taken up by a swathe of international matches, choking the Prem off on May 22.
June is busy with the Nations League and call-ups from other international teams.
No one is happy that the leagues have dumped replays in the FA Cup third and fourth rounds.
There are also calls for scrapping the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals, led by Jurgen Klopp and Antonio Conte.
I love the old competition but the rounds coincide with the busiest part of the season at the period when Covid will be rabid — and replays would overburden the system to breaking point.
The Africa Cup of Nations isn’t helping.
For some smaller clubs’ earnings from replays at, say, Old Trafford, were a lifeblood but so are the sums passed down the line to the EFL and the whole game beyond.
They would suffer from greater damage to the fixture list and the Premier League clubs are only too aware that there are likely to be heavy revenue losses from limited crowds if the Government intervenes again.
During the first savage lockdown, I know just how many people had become bored stiff and appreciated the fact that they were able to watch every Prem match.
Whether we reach that stage this time, how can we know? But at least we have made our intentions clear — no surrender.
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