Premier League given June go-ahead, but doubts remain

The UK government has greenlighted the return of the Premier League as early as June, with a further easing of lockdown measures hoped to come into place in time for ‘project restart.’

The Premier League had been planning for an ambitious June 12th return to action, but there has been little in the way of decisions with the league’s bottom clubs protesting the idea of neutral grounds unless the threat of relegation is removed.

But now, the British government has edged the plans closer towards reality, by telling organisations to prepare for the scenario that the spread of COVID-19 continues to decrease in time for the next stage of lockdown easing to occur on June 1st.

This depends entirely on the rate of infection in the UK continuing to stay under control, whilst there are other stumbling blocks in the way, such as members of the Brighton squad contracting the virus since socially distanced training resumed.

However, further news has emerged today which may help the return of the Premier League, and that is the governing body moving towards the idea of playing games home and away behind closed doors, in-line with other European leagues, instead of at neutral venues.

The German and Portuguese leagues look on course to resume in empty stadia this month, but concerns remain with multiple footballers testing positive for COVID-19, including the entire Dynamo Dresden squad being placed in quarantine before German football’s kick off this weekend.

⚠️EXPLAINED: The EFL's 'weighted' PPG system.

There's been plenty of talk regarding the system that is set to decide League One and Two this week, but what is it, how does it work, and why are Wycombe going to be livid?

Read on for our primer:

👉https://t.co/D0e8a7QDXC#EFL

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) May 10, 2020