LONDON: The Premier League could face years of legal challenges if this season is not completed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the chairman of Crystal Palace warned on Sunday.
Steve Parish offered public support for the league’s Project Restart plans after relegation-threatened Brighton and West Ham United expressed concerns about teams being forced to play their remaining games in neutral stadiums.
The league is working with the government to find a safe way for players to resume group training and play games by June at the earliest.
But the French and Dutch league seasons have already been halted by their governments amid ongoing concerns about sporting fixtures spreading Covid-19 infections. While Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were crowned French champions last week despite Ligue 1 ending prematurely, Ajax will not be awarded the Dutch title.
“I want to complete the competition for reasons of sporting integrity,” Parish said in a Sunday Times column published on Sunday on the Palace website. “I want to crown Liverpool champions and give every other club a fair crack at the best league position they can achieve. I certainly don’t want to have difficult conversations about curtailing, voiding and points per game.
“The ramifications of each are complex and could involve legal challenges that run on for months, if not years. But, yes, it is partly about the money. And we should all care about the money.
Parish highlighted the many secondary industries football enriches with the Premier League fearing losses of more than one billion pounds from an incomplete campaign as broadcasting commitments are not met.
“Nobody wins if the Premier League receives less money,” Parish said. “Football is one of the most efficient tax-generating industries in Britain; we pay the players a lot but 50 percent goes straight back into the public purse. Overall we pay about 3.3 billion pounds in tax every year and it is the Premier League that largely funds the whole football pyramid.”
The national lockdown remains in place through Thursday in Britain where more than 28,000 people have died in around two months in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for the new coronavirus.
Parish’s explanation of Project Restart came as the Premier League faced heavy criticism from one of the main pundits for the broadcaster that provides the league’s single biggest revenue stream.
Gary Neville, the former England and Manchester United defender turned Sky Sports commentator, said the Premier League was having a nightmare and was hiding, scared to death of communicating its plans fully in public. The league has not made any official available for interview since the competition was suspended almost two months ago.
“I want football to return. I also understand the complexities, Neville said in a response to Parish’s tweet linking to his column. “No one wants to be responsible for this one! Just in case the unthinkable happens. … I’d respect them more if they said We accept the increase in Health Risk but it’s one we are willing to take.’ They won’t as they are frightened to death!”
Claiming there needs to be more public comment from clubs, Neville wrote on Twitter: “The PL are having a CV nightmare. They keep spouting Health First but then brief constantly ‘We have to Re-Start’.
“I’d respect them more if they said ‘We accept the increase in Health Risk but it’s one we are willing to take’. They won’t as they are frightened to death!”
When Neville was asked by a Twitter user what would happen if someone died as a result of the restart, he said: “That’s why we haven’t heard one single prominent CEO / Chairman / Owner or Executive open his mouth to back the re-start ! Brief / Brief / Brief ! Scared to death of the liability and blame.”
Before making an exception for Brighton as the “only club willing to take a stand”, Neville added: “It would be good for them to speak at least once. Any of them! Clubs included. They are bottling this virus on comms. Very Happy to tell us when they are delivering food parcels though.”
Brighton have held virtual press conferences during the shutdown and chief executive Paul Barber voiced opposition to the idea of finishing the season at neutral venues on his club’s official website on Saturday.
The Spanish league has been communicating their plans more substantially ahead of players resuming training individually at the clubs facilities on Monday while observing a series of safety measures pre-established by the league and local authorities, including regular Covid-19 testing.
There is more uncertainty in Italy where the government has only allowed players in regions containing eight of the 20 Serie A clubs to resume individual training from Monday.
While the leagues in England, Italy and Spain will not start until at least June, the German top flight is hoping to resume this month.
But the Bundesliga’s plans were unsettled by three positive tests for coronavirus last week at Cologne, reportedly including two players.
Cologne have insisted that there is no need for the rest of the squad and coaching staff to go into quarantine.
“The prerequisite for this is, of course, that now that we have started testing, we continue to test consistently, thus ensuring that only those who have tested negatively are part of training,” team doctor Paul Klein said.
Cologne said on Sunday that players will only resume training after two consecutive negative Covid-19 tests.
