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Government hits PL with new blow

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There will be no professional sport – behind closed doors or anywhere else – until June 1 the earliest.

The Government put some flesh on the bones of last night’s broadcast from th Prime Minister in the House of Commons this afternoon and it would appear to have killed Premier League hopes – for the time being at least – of getting Operation Restart underway.

It means that things in the country will remain unchanged which surely means that any form of squad training has gone out of the window.

Should circumstances allow that by June 1 it will presumably be July 1 at the earliest before any of the 92 outstanding matches would be played.

Premier League chairmen were meeting as the announcement came that the government would not be allowing any sport whatsoever to get underway.

The government has published a 50-page guidance document detailing how England will begin to ease lock down measures.

Step two of that plan – which will not be allowed to start before 1 June – includes “permitting cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors for broadcast, while avoiding the risk of large-scale social contact”.

The document states that reopening venues that attract large crowds, such as sports grounds, “may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections”.

The Premier League is now faced with another crucial date ahead of June 1 when they will need to let Uefa know whether they will be looking to re-start the league at all.

The game’s ruling body in Europe has made it clear that it requires a response to an instruction on that by May 25.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

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