01 May 2020

Breaking: Premier League hopes to restart on June 12 with games at neutral grounds

Premier League clubs are planning to return to domestic action on June 12, with matches to be played at neutral grounds.

The 20 top flight teams met on Friday and discussed the various possible options for more than three hours.

And it was decided that, providing the Government allow football to go ahead, matches will return in the second week of June.

This will come after players return to some form of ‘normal’ training together from May 18.

However, in a bid to ensure as much equality as possible, no club will play in their own home stadium.

A variety of Premier League grounds will host games between neutral sides, with the stadiums chosen to finish off this unprecedented season likely to be ones situated outside of busy, populated areas.

It has been widely agreed by the footballing community that fans will not be able to attend matches for the rest of the season, so any upcoming games will be behind closed doors.

Clubs will meet again in seven days time to flesh out the proposal further and make any adjustments necessary following Boris Johnson’s exit strategy announcement the day before.

And then their meeting on May 15 has been pushed back to May 18 in a bid to give clubs more time to evaluate the best ways of dealing with the unusual circumstances.

If play does resume on June 12 it will have been over three months since Leicester beat Aston Villa in the final Premier League game before all elite football in England was suspended.

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