Premier League circuit-breaker: How would it work in practice and would it be enough?

[ASFN Admin]

A new Premier League pause is supported by public health experts who say it is "very unlikely" that the match calendar can go uninterrupted by Covid-19 through January. Dr John Ashton, former Director of Public Health for North-West England, says a splinter group of club executives are right to be exploring the option of a two-week circuit-breaker. League executives are currently resistant to clubs taking pre-emptive action to put players back into lockdown, but Ashton says the issue may yet be taken out of their hands. "It's very unlikely that matches will be able to continue through January," he told Telegraph Sport. With pressure increasing on England's top tier after Fulham cancelled their match against Tottenham, here Telegraph Sport explores the practicalities of the "cooling off" idea. How extensive would a circuit-breaker need to be? One option for the clubs would be to stop matches for two weeks, but allow players to continue training. However, public health experts point out that the only guaranteed way to limit spread would be to ask players to stay at home throughout, as they did during the first lockdown in March. Ashton adds that the one of the biggest current problems caused is by teams moving between tiers to play matches. "Boris Johnson is keen on a wartime metaphor - well the weeks we are entering are the equivalent of the May Blitz in 1941 when the German bombers came every night for weeks," Ashton told Telegraph Sport. Manchester City suspected an outbreak within its security bubble was suffered during an away trip in London. "I think the problem is how do you respond to the nation's appetite for football," Ashton says. "Clearly when teams are having to move between different levels of tiering, it's bound to be a problem, which is why it makes sense to actually have a pause." If players are forced to train at home, players will resume the routines they complained about then - solitary runs in the surrounding areas and Zoom classes.

Continue reading...