Serious consideration should be given to playing matches at neutral venues if football returns this season to minimise the impact on the emergency services, the national football policing unit has said.
Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts said “We’ve done the work assessing the remaining fixtures – I think it’s 92 to finish the Premier League season and 341 in the Football League, seven to complete the FA Cup, playing all those fixtures would present challenges, that’s an awful lot of people moving around the country, and if they were all played at the originally planned stadiums then that does present some challenges.
“We all need to look at options about what games absolutely need to be played. Let’s look at how they can be managed, potentially at their own stadiums but equally if we can see benefits of playing at a neutral, controlled venue, both from the health aspects of it but also minimising disruption to the police, the ambulance service and all those other functions that are going to be stretched as people start going about their normal business.
“It’s not a case of us imposing anything on [the football authorities] or telling them [what to do],” Roberts added. “I think it’s a case of, in the first instance, football satisfying the government that they can hold the matches and that it’s safe for everyone to do it in terms of players, officials, coaching staff, broadcasters.
“So you get that first stage of ‘how do you make it safe to play football at the location?’ and it may be that actually that mandates them being played at specific neutral venues where it can be controlled. So I think the health aspect of it might dictate the security aspect of it.”
Roberts added: “One of the biggest considerations has got to be where we are with the lockdown, because of course it does evolve. But a concern might be that if things are screened and it’s behind closed doors is it going to encourage people to come together either in small or larger venues? That’s primarily a health concern but you wouldn’t want to see the police being called to manage people going somewhere to watch a match.”
Roberts insists the safety of all involved is the overriding consideration, but that it is also the role of the police to enable industries like football to resume.
Claret and Hugh say:
Clubs and supporters strongly dislike the concept of playing remaining fixtures at neutral venues but it is hard to argue with Roberts views that safety must be the overriding consideration in restarting football. It is important that the health and safety of players, officials, coaching staff and broadcasters are taken into account but equally emergency services such as police, ambulance, medical staff and fire service should not be stretched just to complete fixtures for the Premier League when these resources could be required else where in the country.
The Deputy Chief Constable words are likely to move the Premier League clubs one step closer to abandoning the season as they are faced an ever increasing set of complex challenges to complete 92 fixtures.
The twenty clubs are due to meet again tomorrow by video conference to discuss the latest developments. The meeting comes after the Dutch, Belgium and French abandoned their leagues. To date the Premier league have kicked the can down the road each time seemingly afraid of making a final decision.
“The safety of all involved is overriding”. Until they can guarantee the safety of the most essential people involved, the players, I cannot see how we can resume. What about social distancing? How can you play football whilst maintaining a 6 feet gap? Can footballers control their basic instinct to spit and nose snort. Can players find a dry place on the pitch to dive? Do we make exceptions for football that none of the rest of the “ordinary” people are allowed?