Premier League managers demand ‘more clarity’ on cancelled games

The Premier League is divided over the possibility of a ‘firebreak’ shutdown amid a backdrop of spiralling Covid cases and nine postponed matches in the top flight. 

Five of the 10 scheduled Premier League matches across Saturday and Sunday have already been called off, taking the total number of postponed top-flight fixtures this week to nine.

It has led Premier League shareholders to meet on Monday to discuss a festive shutdown of football, according to reports, as its clubs struggle with several coronavirus outbreaks.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has demanded ‘more clarity’ on why matches are being postponed and urged the Premier league to issue guidance on the rules to ‘maintain fairness’. 

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe agreed, insisting a decision needs to be made over the future of the campaign as soon as possible to ‘ensure integrity is maintained’. 

However, opposition came from Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp who insisted on Thursday night that he sees no point of a ‘circuit breaker’ and just urged football chiefs to be more ‘flexible’ with the schedule. 

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish is also opposed and wants to play as many games as possible, insisting there have been not enough cancellations to enforce a pause – in his view.  

The Premier League will discuss temporarily stopping the season on Monday, say reports

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe says a decision needs to be made over the campaign to ‘ensure integrity is maintained’

Arteta, whose side face Leeds on Saturday night, believes the Premier League needs to provide ‘more clarity’ on the rules behind matches being called off to ensure the competition maintains integrity. 

The Spaniard said on Friday: ‘Well health wise I hope we’re doing everything we can to protect everybody.

‘I’m sure with everything we are doing we can do our best to keep everybody healthy.

‘We need more clarity on why those games are not being played and what you need to not have a game played so you can maintain the fairness of the competition.

‘We always want to play when we have the right conditions to do so 100 per cent. But we’ve been here on the other side of the table where we’ve had all the arguments in the build up to a football match and ended up playing it. That’s why we need clarity to maintain fairness. 

‘I think there are people that know much more than I do to try to find out what the best solution is for this. It’s not something I want to give an opinion on because I’m not a specialist. We have to rely on the government and Premier League to make the right decision. 

‘What I’m saying is let’s make a decision based on what is best for the competition and the health of everyone involved. After that then clear guidance on if it’s a yes or a no.’ 

Chelsea’s clash with Everton took place on Thursday, despite other matches being called off

Howe, whose Newcastle side are battling Premier League relegation agreed with the Spaniard and said the Premier League risks becoming ‘slightly unfair’.

He said: ‘I don’t think we want half the games played and half not played.

‘The league really loses something if it becomes disjointed in terms of games played.

‘When you start losing players to Covid then the worry is the competition becomes slightly unfair and I don’t think anyone wants to see that.

‘A decision needs to be made to ensure integrity is maintained in the competition. I think it is on a knife edge.

‘People want to see a fair league and not disparity in games and players missing.

‘I’m desperate to continue the programme myself but the welfare of the players and supporters has to come first.’

Brentford manager Thomas Frank revealed his club’s desire to announce a temporary stop

Jurgen Klopp sees no point in a ‘circuit breaker’ stop after Liverpool’s win over Newcastle

Arteta and Howe’s stances follow Brentford manager Thomas Frank announcing his club’s desire to announce a temporary stop on Thursday morning.

The Danish manager claimed the variant is ‘running like wildfire’ around the world and that shutting down football for at least a week would help clubs get things under control.  

Frank told a press conference on Thursday morning: ‘It would give everyone a week at least, or four or five days to clean and do everything at the training ground so everything is clean and you break the chain.

‘Also in football, you need close contact. Physios need to do their job with players in treatment. We are in dressing room on matchdays, we are travelling by coaches so it’s a little bit more difficult to work from home.’ 

According to The Times, Premier League chiefs will meet on Monday to discuss a potential shutdown, just a day after announcing their commitment to stick to the current schedule. 

Manchester United’s clash with Brighton on Saturday lunchtime is one of five matches called off this weekend, with the top-flight striking off four matches in one go late on Thursday. 

Ralf Rangnick’s United had just seven players available for the weekend visit of the Seagulls and have closed their Carrington training base until Tuesday. The club’s next game after that is a trip to Newcastle on December 27.  

Overall, nine matches have been called off due to outbreaks sparked by the Omicron variant, starting from Tottenham’s match with Brighton on December 12 to the five weekend matches called off on Thursday.   

But Klopp announced after his Liverpool side’s 3-1 win over Newcastle on Thursday night – which saw Virgil van Dijk, Curtis Jones and Fabinho miss the game due to Covid – that he sees no point of a ‘circuit breaker’ stop. 

Klopp told his post-match press conference on Thursday: ‘Stopping the league is probably not the right thing but with the schedule we have to be more flexible. We have three players out because of Covid. 

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish (above) believes the Premier League should carry on

‘Then we play on the 26th and the 28th (of December) and you have 13 players available, that’s not possible. There are plenty of questions we need to find answers for but I don’t have the solution.’ 

Also urging the Premier League to continue as planed, Parish told BBC Breakfast on Friday: ‘We haven’t had the level of postponements to get a real pause. We would rather get the games over with that we can, while we still can. 

‘I would be against that (a firebreaker) right now but we’ll see how things develop. Rules are put in place to fill the squad. There are many reason you can and can’t fill the squad. 

‘We are all aware of the situation that is going on, we need to keep our players safe from catching Covid. Obviously it’s unfortunate, we’ve had situations with very key players out and have had to play. It’s the same with injuries. 

‘It’s always difficult when you lose where you’re playing important games. But we need to get to get through as many fixtures as we can. And if teams have got a reasonable players to field, then we try and carry on as we can.’