EPL clubs demand festive firebreak

LONDON — English Premier League shareholders are set to meet on Monday to discuss a festive shutdown of football, according to reports, as its clubs struggle with several coronavirus outbreaks.

Half of this weekend’s fixtures in England’s top-flight have been called off due to widespread cases among many clubs, with Brentford boss Thomas Frank leading calls to temporarily stop the busy winter schedule so the affected teams can recover.

That is not the view shared by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish, with the latter claiming there is not a high enough ”level of postponements” to justify a temporary pause.

Yet according to The Times, English Premier League chiefs will meet on Monday to discuss a potential shutdown, just a day after announcing their commitment to stick to the current schedule.

The reported meeting hints that the other half of top-flight fixtures planned for this weekend are set to go ahead, barring any further outbreaks in the squads set to play.

Those fixtures include Arsenal’s trip to Leeds today and Tottenham’s match at home to Liverpool tomorrow. Wolves are currently planned to host Chelsea while Manchester City will travel to Newcastle as well.

Manchester United’s clash with Brighton today at lunchtime was one of five matches called off this weekend, with the top-flight striking off four matches in one go late on Thursday.

Ralf Rangnick’s United had just seven players available for the weekend visit of the Seagulls and have closed their Carrington training base until Tuesday. The club’s next game after that is a trip to Newcastle on December 27.

Overall, nine matches have been called off due to outbreaks sparked by the Omicron variant, starting from Tottenham’s match with Brighton on December 12 to the five weekend matches called off on Thursday.

Thursday night’s clash between Leicester City and Tottenham was called off following requests from both camps this week and while Chelsea also reported a small number of cases on Thursday, their 1-1 draw with Everton went ahead.

But the league insisted that no temporary stoppage will be necessary and the top-flight is committed to sticking to the current winter schedule, which sees several teams playing every three days before the New Year.

An English Premier League statement on Thursday read: “’While recognising a number of clubs are experiencing Covid-19 outbreaks, it is the League’s intention to continue its current fixture schedule where safely possible. The health and wellbeing of all concerned remains our priority.”

English Premier League managers have differed in their views to temporarily stop the season, after Brentford manager Frank came out announcing his club’s desire to announce a temporary stop.

The Danish manager claimed the variant is “running like wildfire” around the world and that shutting down football for at least a week would help clubs get things under control.

Frank told a press conference on Thursday morning: “It would give everyone a week at least, or four or five days to clean and do everything at the training ground so everything is clean and you break the chain.

“Also in football, you need close contact. Physios need to do their job with players in treatment. We are in dressing room on matchdays, we are travelling by coaches so it’s a little bit more difficult to work from home.”

Frank believes a decision to halt this weekend’s round of top-flight fixtures could be enough to sure the busy festive programme will be able to go ahead largely as planned.

“We fully respect that we want to play and it is important football keeps going, and this way we can make sure Boxing Day keeps going, I’m 100 percent sure of that,” added Frank.

“This Omicron variant is running like wildfire around the world and I think we need to do all we can to protect and avoid it. I think we can do a lot by closing down training grounds for three, four or five days, and then we can go again.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, meanwhile, questioned whether it is fair for some teams to carry on playing while other teams cannot fulfil their games due to their respective outbreaks

“I don’t think we want half the games played and half not played,” Howe said. “The league really loses something if it becomes disjointed in terms of games played.

“When you start losing players to Covid then the worry is the competition becomes slightly unfair and I don’t think anyone wants to see that.

“A decision needs to be made to ensure integrity is maintained in the competition. I think it is on a knife edge.

“People want to see a fair league and not disparity in games and players missing. I’m desperate to continue the programme myself but the welfare of the players and supporters has to come first.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp announced after his side’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle on Thursday night — which saw Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho both miss the game due to Covid — that he sees no point of a “circuit breaker” stop.

Klopp told his post-match press conference on Thursday: “Stopping the league is probably not the right thing but with the schedule we have to be more flexible. We have three players out because of Covid.

“Then we play on the 26th and the 28th (of December) and you have 13 players available, that’s not possible. There are plenty of questions we need to find answers for but I don’t have the solution.”

Palace chairman Parish, meanwhile, believes the Premier League should play as many games as it possibly can as there have been not enough cancellations to enforce a “firebreaker” — in his view.

“We haven’t had the level of postponements to get a real pause,” he told BBC Breakfast yesterday morning. “We would rather get the games over with that we can, while we still can.

“I would be against that (a firebreaker) right now but we’ll see how things develop. Rules are put in place to fill the squad. There are many reason you can and can’t fill the squad.

“We are all aware of the situation that is going on, we need to keep our players safe from catching Covid. Obviously it’s unfortunate, we’ve had situations with very key players out and have had to play. It’s the same with injuries.

“It’s always difficult when you lose where you’re playing important games. But we need to get to get through as many fixtures as we can. And if teams have got a reasonable players to field, then we try and carry on as we can.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta — who was forced to field a weakened side for a defeat to Brentford in August after four players tested positive for the virus — called on the English Premier League to provide more clarity on postponement regulations.

“We need much more clarity on what you need to not play the game,” Arteta said. “The most important thing is we’re able to maintain the fairness within the competition.

“We’ve been here on the other side of the table where we had all the arguments in the world to not play a football match and we ended up playing it.”

English Premiership Fixtures

Today:

Manchester United v Brighton (postponed);

Aston Villa v Burnley (5pm);

Watford v Crystal Palace (postponed);

West Ham v Norwich City (postponed);

Southampton v Brentford (postponed);

Leeds v Arsenal (7:30pm).

Tomorrow:

Everton v Leicester City (postponed);

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea (4pm);