Project Restart: A key week ahead
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the current status of football's return amid the pandemic?
0:08–0:43
2
What are the implications of the government's lockdown measures for football?
0:43–1:09
3
How are Premier League clubs planning for a potential return?
1:09–2:02
4
What are the concerns regarding neutral venues for matches?
2:02–3:21
5
How will player safety and health be ensured during the restart?
3:21–4:47
6
What are the major challenges in testing players for COVID-19?
4:47–6:38
7
How do player contracts affect the return to football?
6:38–7:49
8
What can we expect in the coming week regarding football's restart?
7:49–32:57
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Sky Sports Premier League Podcast
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