Don’t expect to see scenes like this games resume

Premier League clubs still have misgiving about Project Restart plans with one report claiming ‘one executive is concerned about a corporate manslaughter prosecution’ in the worst case scenario of a player dying from Covid-19.

It remains likely the 20 clubs will give the green light in a vote on Wednesday for a return to full contact training this week.

But according to this latest report club executives are reportedly still seeking reassurance on several issues including the scenario above.

Clubs are reportedly still seeking clarification on what happens if several first-team squad members are isolated because of Covid-19 and whether that would lead to their matches being postponed.

And one club chief executive raised the extreme scenario of a player dying of the virus and whether that could make club directors liable to prosecution for corporate manslaughter.

Clubs are also seeking clarity on what happens to the rest of the squad if a player involved in contact training tests positive and is left to playing slot machine games online at home away from the team.

There has been particular reluctance from the BAME playing community after the Office for National Statistics released data that black men and women are nearly twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as white people.

However, it was stressed in a meeting between the Premier League’s BAME advisory group and the government’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam last Friday that this equates to a 0.04 per cent chance of black players catching the virus and 0.02 per cent for white, much lower than the odds you’d get at internet casino sites.

ClaretandHugh says: The great unmentionable question has finally been asked: What happens if a player dies? It needed to be but the reality as I see it seems to be that there are very few who care a single iota whether the PL season kicks off again or not. All I hear wherever I go is people – however ardent they have been for the game – wanting a way out of this horrendous situation we have been in for weeks. Football is now, as famously declared by Jurgen Klopp,the most important of  least important things.  And it became clear yesterday as a clearly harassed Boris Johnson gave the quickest possible briefing that about summed it up. Football and sport in general wasn’t mentioned. There are far, far, more important issues facing the nation and the flimsy idea that our spirits are going to be raised by a few behind closed doors games is frankly a pathetic excuse for pressing on and on.We appreciate the the issue of a possible fatality being raised ONLY because it might focus minds on what’s right and what is clearly wrong.