To seasoned Liverpool fans who’ve been rooting for the club since their diapered days, the ongoing epidemic must prove especially aggravating. After all, Liverpool was just two wins away from securing their first league title in 30 years, when the Premier League was forced into hiatus because of the Coronavirus.
“Truly, it’s a sad world we live in,” said every Liverpool fan ever. “Mamen, may you never walk alone.”
And though I’m a self-professed Manchester United fan, I gotta admit;
If anything else, at the very least, they deserve to win the trophy this time.
Premier League to Restart on 17 June Without Speculators
And what do you know? It seems that the tides, like my Aunt Matilda’s eternally changing demeanour, have turned in Liverpool’s favour.
The current Premier League season is tentatively set to restart on 17 June, provided that “all safety requirements have been put in place”.
The statement was made yesterday (28 May) after a meeting with all 20 clubs.
“Today we have provisionally agreed to resume the Premier League on Wednesday 17 June. But this date cannot be confirmed until we have met all the safety requirements needed, as the health and welfare of all participants and supporters is our priority,” said Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters.
To get things up and running again, games in hand will be played first, with ‘Aston Villa v Sheffield United’ and ‘Manchester City v Arsenal’ scheduled for that very Wednesday (17 June).
A full fixture list will then be played out on the weekend from 19 – 21 June.
It should be noted that as per Coronavirus measures, all games will run without fans in attendance.
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“Sadly, matches will have to take place without fans in stadiums, so we are pleased to have come up with a positive solution for supporters to be able to watch all the remaining 92 matches,” said Masters.
All 92 remaining matches will be broadcast live in the UK via the league’s existing broadcast partners: SkySports, BT Sport, BBC Sport and Amazon Prime.
The BBC will broadcast four matches live, with Sky Sports airing 64 of the remaining games. Out of the 64 matches, 25 will be broadcast on free channels.
“The Premier League and our clubs are proud to have incredibly passionate and loyal supporters. It is important to ensure as many people as possible can watch the matches at home,” Masters said.
The league has also expressed that due to the surplus number of live games on television, kick-offs would “differ from the traditional times”.
Money’s A Factor Here
On 13 March, the Premier League was forced to take a break due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Since last week, however, teams have steadily returned to small group training, and on Wednesday voted to “return to contact training, including tackling”.
While the teams’ assent might have assisted in the decision to restart the Premier League, another deciding factor might have been financial in nature. According to British media estimates, failure to continue the season could cost the league around 750 million pounds (SGD$1.3 billion) in lost revenue from broadcasters.
That’s a lot. Small wonder why they’re so eager to get the Premier League started again.
But hey, as long as we get our football matches back…
I don’t think anyone’s gonna analyse all the little details here and there.
With that said, stay safe, stay home…
And let’s have our fingers crossed that the season will continue on the stipulated date, because any further postponement would simply be intolerable.
For a recap of the current Premier League standings, you can refer to this link.
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