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Chapter 1: What is the current status of football's return amid the pandemic?
Hello and welcome to the Sky Sports Football Podcast. Since the moment football was suspended, there's been speculation, debate and discussion about when and how it could return. There's also been lots of suggestions, lots of ideas and even cases made for the 2019-20 season to be written off completely.
But it's only now that we're starting to get a clear picture of what a football restart may look like and the coming days will be key. I'm Peter Smith, the Sky Sports Football Features Editor and joining me on this podcast today with updates on the latest developments are two Sky Sports News reporters. First up, Brian Swanson. Brian, how are you?
I'm good, thanks, Pete. Just getting used to the new normal of working at home.
Absolutely.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of the government's lockdown measures for football?
It's all a bit strange, isn't it? All a bit different. And we've also got Carvey Solic on the line. Carvey, how's things?
Yeah, not too bad, not too bad. Just missing football like everyone else. But, you know, I'm sure we can all wait until it comes back, whenever that is.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, hopefully we'll have some details about that in the next 25 minutes, 30 minutes or so. Because Brian, it feels like this is an important week for Project Restart, as it's been labelled.
Chapter 3: How are Premier League clubs planning for a potential return?
We had a meeting on Friday with Premier League clubs and it feels like the next few days could be quite important as well in terms of what the government may or may not decide to do with lockdown measures later this week. So can you just bring us up to speed, Brian, with where we are at the moment?
This is a significant week for sure for the future of football in this country. We're going to be learning in detail about how the UK intends to come out of these restrictions whenever they may be. Boris Johnson has said that they'll be publishing a comprehensive plan, full details expected by Sunday.
According to the medical experts, the pandemic is past its peak in the UK, but we know that there's going to be no quick way back. The Premier League clubs remain committed to finishing this season. That position hasn't changed. since English football was suspended back on Friday the 13th of March. First the league was suspended until April the 4th, then April the 30th, and then indefinitely.
Chapter 4: What are the concerns regarding neutral venues for matches?
A sign of just how unpredictable the past seven weeks has been. And I guess the problem is, Pete, that football has no control over the situation. Everybody is extremely mindful that this is a desperately sad situation. More than 28,000 people have lost their lives in the UK with coronavirus.
families and friends have lost loved ones as much as we all love sport and football we all know it doesn't matter compared to public health but it is still important to plan for the future and that's where the premier league in particular are going to be guided by what the government say that should give us the answer over how the game can return there's going to be a further meeting planned after the government announcement and then clubs are due to meet again on monday the 18th um so carvey what what are the plans that these premier league clubs are
Sketching out at the moment, what's it looking like? What would a Premier League return currently look like?
I think the first thing to say is that not all the 20 stadiums would be used. What they're looking at at the moment is using between 8 and 10 neutral venues per Now this is quite contentious because some of the clubs, especially the clubs near the bottom of the Premier League, are not in favour of using neutral venues.
Chapter 5: How will player safety and health be ensured during the restart?
because obviously in those games they would be potentially I mean basically they'd be losing home advantage in those games so it's something that they are a bit concerned about and the grounds that would be used we don't know which grounds they are but it's safe to assume that they would be grounds that are away from city centers that are not in an area where there's lots of housing
So, you know, you're talking about grounds, for instance, West Ham, Brighton, the King Power, Old Trafford. Those are the kind of grounds that are being looked at. And I think they also and need grounds that are quite modern. So it'll be easier to have social distancing between the players and the squads and all the other people who will be at those games.
But it is quite contentious, this whole issue of playing at neutral grounds. But I think it's the only way that football can really restart because you wouldn't be able to get licences to play games at all 20 grounds at the moment. It would be much easier for the authorities if games were just being played at 8 or 10 grounds, and it would be much easier just to make those grounds totally safe.
Chapter 6: What are the major challenges in testing players for COVID-19?
And there's also the issue, which I'm not sure if it's a bit of a red herring, that some people are concerned that if games were played at clubs' own grounds,
that fans would turn up outside because they wanted to be there now personally i don't think that would happen i think fans are sensible enough that if they're told to stay away and stay at home they wouldn't just turn up outside grounds but that is another concern why um people are looking at playing these games at neutral venues we saw that happen with a psg game didn't we just at the start of this um but i guess people's attitudes and uh
realization of how serious this issue has probably changed quite a bit since that time yeah i think what happened uh with psg was was at the start of the pandemic when people maybe weren't aware of quite what a serious situation it was but i tend to think that that fans are you know, law abiding, just like everybody else in society.
And if they were told to stay away from games, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't turn up outside grounds.
I do think as well, Kaveh, that one of the key considerations here is the police. And I think that there is a nervousness that although supporters will be told not to go anywhere near grounds, some of them may be tempted to do that, particularly as there's lockdown eases at some points and restrictions do ease.
I think the figure of 8 to 10 neutral venues was recognised as the most appropriate to receive safety certificates and police approval. It's also why I think Wembley will be under consideration because I'm sure the Football Association will also have one eye on hoping to resume their FA Cup ties.
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Chapter 7: How do player contracts affect the return to football?
And if you look at some of those remaining games, in particular potential semi-finals and then a final, Wembley could be key to that. So there's still an awful lot that needs to be discussed and decided. But I do think that the police will be extremely aware of the potential of supporters around grounds, like it or not.
I think what's interesting as well is I was speaking to a few people who work in football. And I was making a sort of flippant point that, you know, they must be at home with not a lot to do at the moment. And they made the point to me that actually they don't think they've ever been this busy before.
in their lives because there is so much going on behind the scenes and there is so much to prepare for i mean the first thing they have to prepare for is to restart training and you know that is going to be complicated as well i think the best case scenario is that training could start in perhaps two weeks time but obviously so many measures would be have to be put in place for that to happen.
And then I think the other concern that people in football really have is to do with issues around testing.
Chapter 8: What can we expect in the coming week regarding football's restart?
I think it's been reported that 40,000 tests are needed for the Premier League to restart. And people are very, very worried in football about the fact that they don't want to be using up tests that could be used by people who need them more. So that is another sort of talking point.
And of course, finally, the other thing that's really important is what the players think about all this, because they're the ones who are being asked to take a risk. However small that risk is, it is still a bit of a risk to go back to work. And from what I'm hearing, nobody's going to be forced to go back to work.
So if players don't feel it's safe to train or play, then they can stay away if they want to.
Yeah, Brian, we obviously saw some quotes from Sergio Aguero recently where he said about players that he'd spoken to had felt scared about a potential return. And Carvey mentions it there that players potentially would be allowed not to play if they didn't think it was safe. But is that realistic that a player...
would not be put under pressure or not feel pressure to play even against his wishes, given the importance that is still riding on a lot of these matches in terms of the money that teams can generate from qualifying for the Champions League or not being relegated from the Premier League, for instance.
I think it's important to take a step back and see players as employees. Players are like us. They're employed by companies and companies have to follow health and safety regulations. They have a duty of care. to make sure that their employees are safe.
And if an employee doesn't feel safe, then they can't be forced to go against their wishes and undertake work that they just don't feel comfortable doing. So I think what's going to happen in the coming weeks is that those clubs will, they need the players to be involved. They need the players to absolutely agree to this because without the players, you have no games, we have nothing.
So there has to be absolute buy-in here. And that's why we saw in the last statement that was issued by the Premier League a specific mention of the players and the LMA, the League Managers Association, because they know that they have to make it work for them. It wants to avoid having a very different approach across a number of leagues. They need to be united more than ever.
I think one of the points as well is I saw that the president of La Liga in Spain made the point that it was only right that football prepares to return because football is a business. It's an industry. And, you know, if you owned a factory, you'd be making plans for how you could, you know, get the factory up and running again.
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