Gary Neville claims football needs ‘28,000 coronavirus tests’ to resume the 2019-20 season behind closed doors… and warns the game will be ‘battered’ if they get them before front-line NHS workers
- The Premier League is indefinitely paused due to the coronavirus pandemic
- Gary Neville says an immense amount of work is to be done to restart the season
- The Sky Sports pundit says 28,000 tests are needed for 2019-20 to begin again
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Gary Neville remains immensely doubtful over the Premier League‘s chances of resuming the 2019-20 season any time soon
A mass-testing programme for clubs and players is key to a safe restart of the campaign but at present, there are not enough resources to check health workers treating those who have caught the virus.
‘There’s so much to consider,’ Neville said on Tuesday on the Sky Sports Football Show.
Gary Neville believes 28,000 coronavirus tests are needed before football can restart
Premier League football was stopped in March due to the ongoing outbreak of the virus
‘There’s an article in the Daily Mail about testing. It works out at 28,000 tests. How do they get those?
‘The Premier League will be battered publicly if they get hold of those tests and front-line workers haven’t. We’re having to read between the lines. They haven’t got a group position and nobody is coming out to speak about it.
‘What happens if certain club’s players decide it’s not safe to train? Do they then make the season null and void?’
Neville appeared to be referencing Martin Samuel’s column, published on Monday, looking at the logisitics of football returning behind closed doors.
Resuming the 2019-20 campaign remains the priority for Premier League clubs, who held talks on Friday regarding the state of play of the season.
A June 30 cut-off date for the season to begin again had been mooted but it was not discussed during Friday’s meeting.
It is thought the biggest financial consideration for clubs remains getting the 2019-20 season completed, rather than any costs attached to legal disputes over player contracts.
There are players throughout the Premier League, such as Adam Lallana, Willian and Jan Vertonghen, whose current deals with their respective teams run until June 30.
Players such as Chelsea attacker Willian have a club contract that is set to expire by June 30
Liverpool are the Premier League’s runaway leaders and keen for the season to restart
Neville believes that clubs can handle monetary losses between now and June but beyond then, they could be facing trying times.
‘They are losing money, there’s no doubt about it,’ Neville said. ‘But the losses are manageable for all clubs, in my view.
‘The difficulties come beyond June, July if there’s no income. I think clubs could pay full wages April, May and June, most of them.
‘This all stems from the Premier League announcing cuts three weeks ago without the captains of the clubs knowing. The players will eventually take deferrals or cuts, but there’s a distrust there.’