Premier League to step up planning on June season restart

Premier League officials are set to step up planning for the return of this season's League campaign - an exercise dubbed 'Project Restart'.

Coronavirus related lockdowns are slowly easing across Europe and an anticipated return for professional sport is expected to gather pace across the next few weeks.

The league is hopeful of a restart by June 8th, with players having returned to training by May 18th.

This would allow sufficient time for the remaining 9 games to be completed within the eight weeks before the end of July.

Premier League clubs will meet on Friday to discuss the plans.

The UK Government's Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, has already spoken of the issue:

"I personally have been in talks with the Premier League with a view to getting football up and running as soon as possible in order to support the whole football community."

"But, of course, any such moves would have to be consistent with public health guidance."

Whilst all games are likely to be held behind closed doors, there is the possibility of a number of games being shown live on terrestrial TV.

FIFA are considering allowing the use, temporarily, of five substitutes in a game whilst UEFA have already lifted the 3pm Saturday blackout that had prevented any football being shown live at that time.

Arsenal and West Ham United are amongst two of the domestic clubs who have reopened their training facilities with players returning, initially training on their own.

The UK has committed to providing 100,000 tests across the country for the coronavirus, and rates of infection and infection have been falling since the beginning of April.

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