The Premier League insist there are ‘no plans’ for a two-week circuit break in the season despite increasing fears over the rising cases of Covid-19.
Tottenham’s clash with Fulham became the second Premier League fixture to be postponed this week following the cancellation of Everton against Manchester City on Monday night, with both Fulham and City having reported a number of positive cases in the latest round of testing.
The latest round of Premier League testing provided the highest number of positive cases of the campaign to date with 18 amongst players and staff, with speculation having surfaced regarding a potential two-week break in the season in a bid to combat cases.
West Brom manager Sam Allardyce has backed the prospect of suspending the season, though the proposal has divided opinion with Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Sky Sport’s pundit Gary Neville amongst those to have questioned the benefits of a short-term break.
Can we please get this two week circuit breaker thing off the table . The players would have to carry on mixing and training to be ready in 2 weeks for a match. They may get 4-5 days off. What is that going to do . Would have to be a long break to do anything meaningful!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) December 30, 2020
The three-month hiatus during the 2019/20 season means the current campaign is already hugely congested and there appears no room for a circuit break without making major changes to the calendar, with last summer’s postponed European Championships looming at the end of the season.
Despite the proposals, there appears little chance of a potential pause to the season with the Premier League revealing there are currently ‘no plans’ for a circuit break, expressing their confidence that the current coronavirus protocols will enable fixtures to continue as scheduled.
“The Premier League has not discussed pausing the season and has no plans to do so,” a statement reads.
“The League continues to have confidence in its COVID-19 protocols to enable fixtures to be played as scheduled, and these protocols continue to have the full backing of Government.
“With the health of players and staff the priority, the League is also fully supportive of how clubs are implementing the protocols and rules.”
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