Premier League Can Resume Behind Closed Doors From June 1

Man City manager Pep Guardiola and Man Utd manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Reuters/Carl Recine

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed activity across the globe as most countries lived out weeks of lockdown in a bid to significantly reduce the number of infections and deaths caused by the virus.

However, many regions are slowly either emerging from their lockdown or else laying out the plans that will see cautious normalcy restored over the coming months.

England is one of the nations who have now laid out their plan to emerge from the lockdown and football features in it.

As per Sky Sports, the government has laid out the conditions under which “top-level sport in England could restart behind closed doors from June 1 but spectators may not be able to attend venues until a coronavirus vaccine is found”.

The actual excerpts from the official road map as applies to football states: “Permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed-doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact.”

As such, closed stadium Premier League football could be a reality in the coming month. However, the sheer scale at which stadiums operate may mean that the permitting usual crowds at games could still be quite a long time away.

The concerned organizations are understood to have been instructed to prepare for the same.

The roadmap also states that any move to resume stadium attendance will have to occur after phasing and testing is done to see how feasible it would be whilst also adopt to the safety guidelines.

Likewise, the British government will also monitor how football and other sporting activities are resumed elsewhere in the globe and take inputs from them as well.

As such, football action could be headed back earlier than expected and will have to also adapt and change like so many others sectors in the post-pandemic world.