The English Football Premier League looks set to finish behind closed doors. RTE report that the Premier League are in discussions with UK Right holders. This is to discuss what way would be best to broadcast the seasons remaining fixtures.
The Premier League has been suspended for the last 6 weeks owing to the Covid 19 crisis but it looks like a return could be on the way. It is reported that games could return in June behind closed doors due to social distancing measures. A UK Government spokesperson said, “Ministers continue to work with sports governing bodies on how live sporting events can resume in the future. This can only happen once we have passed the five tests for easing social distancing measures.”
There are currently 92 games left in the current Premier League season. Nearly half of these are set to be aired by Sky and BT Sport. There is talks about the remaining games on who will come on board to broadcast these, with RTE saying that Amazon and BBC are in discussions about showing some of these. Sport 24 report that Man United chairman Ed Woodward is hopeful that the season can finish with or without fans. He said, “Like all of you, we are eager to see the team return to the field as soon as we are advised it is safe to do so, hopefully to complete a season which still held so much promise for us in the Premier League, the Europa League and the FA Cup when it was suspended”.
It remains to be seen what will happen, but an announcement will have to be made in the coming few days in my opinion on whether the season will be void or will be continued to be played out. On Friday, the Dutch Football Association announced to void the current Eredivisie season.
