Premier League clubs may REFUSE to resume season when coronavirus crisis calms

Premier League clubs may refuse to play when the season is due to resume next month because of widespread concerns about their players’ fitness and the integrity of the competition. 

All of English professional football was shut down until April 3 today following talks between the Premier League, FA and EFL, but Sportsmail has been told that there is little expectation amongst the clubs of a resumption being possible in three weeks’ time.

Executives at several Premier League clubs have flagged a number of issues to Sportsmail, which they say may be enough to prevent football returning next month, even if public events remain permitted by the government. Their concerns include:

• The risk of more players contracting coronavirus during the shutdown given that personnel at seven clubs have already been infected – Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Manchester City, West Ham, Brighton and Everton.

• The need to protect the integrity of the competition by ensuring that all clubs return to action at the same time, which will be impossible there are more positive tests over the next three weeks.

• The fact that there are 69 Premier League players out of contract on June 30, which raises further issues over sporting integrity if they have signed deals to move to other clubs.

With tens of millions of pounds at stake in the battles to avoid relegation and to secure Champions League qualification clubs are adamant that they will oppose any revised schedule they feel gives rivals an advantage, with those in the bottom six particularly sensitive to the timing of any resumption. The crisis represents a real challenge to new Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, who was only appointed in December and has yet to establish his authority after three other people were offered the job before him following Richard Scudamore’s departure in 2018.

The Premier League clubs are due to reconvene for talks next week after UEFA’s meeting on Tuesday, when they are expected to take the dramatic step of postponing the European Championship until 2021, which would give domestic leagues valuable time to complete fixture programmes this summer. In another complication however there are 69 Premier League players whose contracts expire on 30 June, including Willian and Pedro at Chelsea and Jan Vertonghen at Tottenham, a situation which threatens to put them on a collision course with their clubs.

In the players’ contracts negotiated through the PFA there is an option for expiring deals to be extended by 28 days in an emergency, but only if parties agree. 

Sportsmail has been told that several agents will demand longer or inflated contracts for their players to re-sign in such circumstances however, particularly if they have better offers from other clubs, which could lead to stand-offs with their employers.

There are even more players out of contract in the EFL, whose Board will meet next week to discuss their next steps after setting a resumption date of 3 April.