Four of this week’s Premier League matches have so far been postponed due to Covid-19 infections but for the time being at least, the league has said the show will go on.
Here the PA news agency looks at which games have gone, what the rules say about postponement and the steps the clubs are taking to try to keep matches on.
Where have we got to?
By 4pm on Thursday afternoon four of this week’s Premier League matches had been postponed due to Covid outbreaks – the Brentford v Manchester United match on Tuesday, the Burnley v Watford match on Wednesday, the Leicester v Tottenham match on Thursday and the Manchester United v Brighton match on Saturday.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank – whose own club have been affected by Covid-19 this week – has called for all this weekend’s matches to be postponed in order to “break the chain” of infections.
It comes against the backdrop of surging cases across the UK driven by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
What do the rules say about postponements?
Norwich manager Dean Smith said he had no idea what the “magic number” of unavailable players needed to force a postponement was earlier this week, but the clubs are fully aware of what the rules say – and indeed voted for them.
Appendix 17 on page 573 of the Premier League’s 2021-22 season handbook deals with the issue in detail. The Premier League board makes the decisions on whether to approve or reject an application to postpone and considers a number of factors.
Each decision is taken on a case-by-case basis, but clubs are guided that if 14 or more players are available then permission will not be granted to postpone. Clubs will be expected to utilise under-21 players with suitable experience in the Premier League, the EFL or overseas.
However the board do also consider medical advice from clubs on whether it is deemed to be an uncontrollable outbreak, in which case it is seen as unsafe to bring players together.
Where training grounds are closed, the board also considers whether squads are able to prepare properly for a match.
What are the Premier League clubs doing about it?
Last week a season-high 42 cases were recorded, and the expectation is that the figure for this week will be even higher when it is published on Monday.
The Premier League wrote to clubs a week ago instructing them to return to Covid emergency measures to tackle the rise in infections, which had been introduced at the start of the season. Clubs who had reached double vaccination rates of 85 per cent or above had been given leeway to relax these measures. The enhanced protocols include wearing face coverings where practical and limiting medical treatment time as far as possible.
On Tuesday the league brought in stricter testing rules, with any player or member of staff now required to take a lateral flow test in their car each time they want to enter their club’s training ground. Those same individuals must also take PCR tests at least twice a week.
What about the EFL?
EFL statement: COVID-19 update.#EFLhttps://t.co/ucPkfwnYCq— EFL Communications (@EFL_Comms) December 16, 2021
Matches are falling fast in the three divisions below the Premier League, and the EFL has responded by introducing enhanced Covid measures for its clubs, described as ‘RED protocols’.
The 72 clubs will be expected to implement a daily screening programme of testing, subject to supply chain availability of lateral flow tests. Any person testing positive will then be required to take a PCR test and isolate in line with Government guidance.
Rules on available players effectively mirror those set out for Premier League clubs. The league confirmed 59 per cent of players in the EFL are double vaccinated, and that 25 per cent do not currently intend to get a vaccine.
Can the season be extended if necessary?
It looks difficult. Premier League sources have talked about there being a ‘hard stop’ because of the June international window, and the 2022-23 season is already starting a week earlier to accommodate the Qatar World Cup in November and December next year.
A raft of postponements at the most congested point in the Premier League’s calendar could cause a major headache.
In 2019-20 UEFA agreed to postpone Euro 2020 by 12 months and move the final stages of its club competitions to August, but a repeat of that would seem unlikely.
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