Home and Away Venues are Still to be Discussed by the English Premier League
The English Premier League is now set to return on the weekend of June 17 and fans are surely looking forward to the comeback of one of the biggest football events worldwide. It was on March 13 when the League announced its suspension due to the health crisis that the world is dealing with today.
Since the suspension of the matches of this year’s season of the English Premier League, many talks have emerged about when its return will be and how the League will go about this. Many were sure that the matches will have to happen behind closed doors and this will definitely be the case.
On June 17, two fixtures are set and punters can already wager on their favorite sport once again online or on apps like 22bet mobile. The first matches will be between Manchester City vs Arsenal and Aston Villa vs Sheffield United. The time and details of the said matches won’t be disclosed yet, but this will happen behind closed doors as well as the 90 remaining fixtures this season.
The matches will only be streamed and broadcasted live by the broadcasting partners of the League which are Sky Sports, Now TV, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime.
Now, even before contact training has been announced, as well as the date of the return of the League, discussions about where the matches will take place became quite a hot topic. There was a proposal that the matches should happen on neutral grounds to help prevent the fans of the clubs from lurking on the vicinity of the fields during the matches.
However, this proposal wasn’t exactly welcomed warmly by all the clubs. There are a few that were vocal about how they will not be happy about it. Now, it just seems like this still remains an option, but the EPL is just really focused on resuming the games.
A statement from the League regarding this was released this week. It says, "The Premier League's ambition is to complete all of our remaining fixtures this season home and away, where possible. We are working with our clubs to ensure risks are assessed and minimized while co-operating with the police at a local and national level."
The statement ended with, "Discussions with the National Police Chiefs' Council and UK Football Policing Unit have been positive and are continuing. We are prepared for all outcomes and have a neutral venue contingency."
However, the British police have expressed their thoughts about this too. They want that at least six of the matches will happen on neutral grounds to avoid the gathering of fans during these events. Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts of South Yorkshire Police talked about this in an interview.
Roberts said, “The majority of the remaining matches will be played at home and away as scheduled, with a small number of fixtures taking place at neutral venues, which, contrary to some reports, have yet to be agreed.” He also said that the matches, including the ones with Liverpool, would be moved at the local forces’ request.
Roberts said that the Merseyside derby and Liverpool's trip to defending champions Manchester City are the matches that could be hosted at neutral venues.
However, Merseyside Police said that they will be happy to be on patrol on any match held at Anfield or Everton’s Goodison Park. They said, "Merseyside Police is ready to provide whatever policing is required of us in relation to games being played at our Premier League stadia once the season restarts."
"In relation to crime and disorder, we have no objections to any of the Everton or Liverpool home fixtures being played at their respective grounds. We have a good working relationship with both clubs, and their fan groups, and are content that we can work together in advance of the restart of the season." That was what they said in the statement released by Liverpool Echo.
Meanwhile, the match of Manchester City against Newcastle that will be held home, as well as Liverpool’s visit to St. James Park may also be at risk. Still, the Greater Manchester Police said that decisions are yet to be made. They only said this in a statement, "A decision will be made by the SAGs (Safety Advisory Groups) in due course and we will support whichever outcome is decided."
The details of these matches are yet to be decided because the League will still have to go through a series of meetings for this. For now, fans can only stay tuned for more details. It just seems like the local police offices will be ready no matter what the decisions will be.
