The Premier League has agreed a £4 million deal with the biotechnology company Prenetics to provide coronavirus testing for players and staff as the league gears up Project Restart for a June resumption of fixtures.
The acquisition of the tests from the Hong Kong company is part of wide-ranging health protocols being drawn up and discussed between the league and the 20 clubs’ medical departments with a view to getting all players back working at training grounds. All players and staff will be tested for the coronavirus twice a week with any found positive to be quarantined away from the rest of the squad.
The clubs recognise that a serious investment is required in Covid-19 testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) to have any chance of creating the biosecure environment necessary to get games under way again. It is understood that the league will also acquire the large number of PPE kits.
Initially, training sessions will comprise groups of five players and three staff. This will only permit players and coaches to work on team shape instead of full-contact training – as has been the staged approach for Bundesliga clubs. The players will not use training-ground buildings in the first phase of the projected return, instead they will be obliged to come to the training ground in their kit, and go straight from their car to the pitches. There will be no treatment on site for the time being.
As Telegraph Sport has reported this week, players will be asked not to spit, swap shirts or hug each other in goal celebrations if and when matches are resumed. There is still some way to go before then with the timeline to getting back to full training constantly under review. The original plan was to build up to a May 18 start date for full-contact training although that is now likely to be pushed back to later in the month.
There was more encouragement on Friday morning for the game and that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Sunday announcement on the easing of lockdown measures will open the door for a return to playing matches. The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden indicated on Radio Four’s Today programme that the government supported a return to playing matches when it was safe.
Dowden said: “If we can get a plan that works I would like us to go ahead. It would be good for the nation”. He will chair a meeting on Thursday of the Premier League, Football Association and Football League. He added: "I’m really hopeful that we can get this up and running."
The Premier League clubs will hold a conference call on Monday in which bottom six clubs opposed, with varying degrees of militancy, to playing at neutral grounds will be told that they must abide by the view of majority. There are 14 votes required for the league to push forward with a decision.
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