When the Premier League season was initially put on hold last month, 4 April was the date that was pencilled in for its resumption.
Needless to say, there will be no football taking place this weekend.
Officially the 2019-20 season is now on hold until April 30, although the authorities – in this case the Premier League, Football League and Football Association (FA) – tacitly acknowledge that the end of this month serves as a placeholder above all else.
There is almost zero chance of the season restarting at the beginning of May.
UEFA acted early and decisively in postponing Euro 2020 until the summer of 2021, but even that act of calendar-clearing has only made the unenviable task of finding a solution to an unprecedented crisis marginally easier.
Premier League clubs are set for another crunch meeting on Friday afternoon, but for now there is a general feeling across the continent that football is unlikely to be played again before June at the earliest.
Indeed, that return date is widely considered an optimistic one among UEFA executives.
Wednesday’s meeting involving members of European football’s governing body resulted in June’s international fixtures being called off, while the Champions League and Europa League have been postponed indefinitely. Youth competitions and the women’s Champions League have been dealt the same fate.
Agenda includes contingency plans for 2019-20 season
Contingency plans for the Premier League will be discussed during a conference call scheduled for Friday afternoon. Many parties wish to see the season completed in June and July should that be possible.
The majority of sides are still firmly behind plans to finish the 2019-20 season one way or another, but the longer the situation drags on without a resolution, the more clubs will begin to fear the spectre of outright cancellation.
Sporting integrity is one factor behind the widespread desire to see out the season, but perhaps the more significant one is the fact that the Premier League stands to lose £762m in broadcast revenue if the remaining matches do not take place.
Most supporters now accept that the remainder of the 2019-20 season is likely to be played behind closed doors.
The probability of that happening has only increased since the city of Liverpool’s public health director declared on Thursday that the Reds’ Champions League game against Atletico Madrid on March 11 – played in front of 54,000 fans, including thousands of visitors from the Spanish capital – should not have gone ahead.
There has reportedly been a suggestion from one Premier League club to stage matches overseas, with China put forward as a potential host country.
The logistics of putting such a scenario into practice would be extraordinarily difficult, however, and would probably face a backlash from fans and players alike.
Another idea is to stage a World Cup style tournament in one region of England, with players and staff staying together in local accommodation. That too is unlikely to come to pass, with the authorities thought to be concerned about the implications of the loss of home advantage.
Pay cuts and player safety
Players have become more prominent in the last week, having hitherto been largely absent from the conversation – at least on a collective level.
The Premier League and Football League held a conference call with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) in which it was made clear by the latter group that players could refuse to resume the season unless adequate health and safety guarantees are in place.
That has cast the behind-closed-doors plan into doubt, as many players do not consider the absence of supporters to be sufficiently reassuring.
“The Premier League, EFL and PFA agreed that difficult decisions will have to be taken in order to mitigate the economic impact of the current suspension of professional football in England and agreed to work together to arrive at shared solutions,” a joint statement read.
On Wednesday the Premier League and Football League warned the PFA that players will almost certainly have to accept pay cuts amid the crisis.
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe became the first Premier League manager to agree to a voluntary salary reduction, and was soon followed by his counterpart at Brighton and Hove Albion, Graham Potter.
The calls for footballers to do their bit was later echoed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who urged Premier League players to “take a pay cut and play their part” on Thursday.
Furlough already impacting non-playing staff
The PFA, meanwhile, has indicated that its members would consider paying the wages of clubs’ non-football staff if their employers are able to demonstrate a genuine need for them to do so.
However, chief executive Gordon Taylor also warned that “in instances where clubs have the resources to pay all staff, the benefit of players paying non-playing staff salaries will only serve the business of the club’s shareholders.”
That has become a thorny and controversial issue in recent days, with Premier League clubs taking different approaches towards their staff.
Newcastle United were the first outfit to announce that they would stop paying non-football employees, who were then informed that they could apply for emergency funding under a new government initiative.
Tottenham Hotspur soon followed suit, announcing that the club’s staff would be furloughed, a message that was also replicated by Norwich City, although the Canaries will at least top up furlough payments to ensure their workers are paid their usual salaries.
Others have pledged to continue paying wages as normal for now, although some have stressed that the situation is under constant review, suggesting that such policies could be altered as time goes on.
It is just three weeks since the Premier League season was put on hold, but it already feels like a lifetime ago.
Back then the question on everybody’s lips was: “when will the campaign return?” It has become increasingly clear since then that there will be no easy way out of the present situation, and the consequences of decisions made in the next few weeks and months could have ramifications that reverberate around that game for years to come.
