FIFA’S medical chief has made a passionate call for the Premier League season to be cancelled.
Michel D’Hooghe compared the deadly coronavirus to World War Two and insists football should not resume until September — with the start of NEXT season.
D’Hooghe said: “The world is not ready for competitive football. “If there is one moment where absolute priority should be given to health and medicine, it is this.
“That is why I ask everybody to be very careful before starting competitions again. I will be happy if we can have nothing before the start of next season.
“If they could start 2020-21 in September they could eventually avoid a second attack from the virus.”
D’Hooghe’s stark warning came as France became the first of Europe’s big five leagues to officially end their season.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe confirmed there would be NO return of professional sport until September.
He told Sky Sports: “It is a terrible responsibility at the moment — the most dramatic situation we have lived in since the Second World War. You cannot play in the Premier League when players have to remain two metres apart.
“Have you tried playing football in a mask? This does not avoid social distancing. Players are together on the field, in the dressing room. “Of course, you could say, ‘Let’s play behind closed doors’.
“But even then, you will see groups of fans coming secretly together in rooms just to support their team anyway.
“Testing is such an important point — but you have to repeat them. If one of the players becomes positive, you have to put the whole group into quarantine.
“Is that a solution for a normal competition? Football has to be patient. It has to listen to the authorities and respect the basic health rules.”
ClaretandHugh says: It’s all over. Uefa has given a 25 May deadline for Leagues to make their decision on whether they are continuing with their leagues or not but the proposition is no longer a starter in anybody’s world. This statement from D’Hoogh is sufficient surely for anybody with a modicum of sense to ensure that the PL is stopped and preferably on Friday. The PL chairmen can save the UK anymore embarrassment after they have scored a series of PR gaffes since this started when trying to continue when other leagues saw dangers and now pressing for a restart when nobody else is doing anything other than cancel. The behind closed doors idea is a nonsense from virtually every point of view and the anxieties in the players’ minds plus the insane idea that they must stay two metres apart on the field of play makes the whole thing impractical. If anything is designed to harm the integrity of the game the League bosses prattle on about it’s that. Thank you Michael D’Hoogh for making it so easy for this craziness to end.