Premier League chief executive RICHARD Masters claims it is “absolutely critical” that fans be allowed to return to the stadiums as soon as possible.
Masters claim that if this does not happen, it will cost clubs something like £ 700 million (about R15 billion) for the new 2020-’21 Premier League season that kicks off on Saturday.
Football has been played behind closed gates since it returned in June due to the corona virus’ lockdown
As things currently stand, fans will only be allowed to return to the stadiums until October.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that they will “review” plans to bring fans back to the stadiums from October 1 in England amid the increasingly positive Covid-19 cases.
Masters lead to games at the back by being able to go on “not forever”, as clubs have already lost billions in pounds due to the disruption at the last quarter of the season.
“We need to get fans back to the stadiums as soon as possible because that’s the big aspect that is lacking. For economic reasons or otherwise, we need fans back in the stadiums for all sorts of reasons and that’s our first priority,” Masters explained.
The EPL boss claims he is optimistic that fans can make a comeback next month. Despite the increasing Covid-19 cases in Britain and the government’s restrictions on gatherings of more than six people, which kick in on Monday.
He acknowledged that “clubs will have to adapt” and that there will be “bumps in the road” to make it work.
“It does not diminish our ambitions at all, it just means that we will have to adapt – that’s one aspect we have proven over the past few months, because we have the ability to adapt.
“We are watching and waiting to see what impact this will have on the government’s tests and what approval they will give. We will continue to be in talks with the government.
“We always knew that September would be a difficult month to start returning to normalcy as referred to by the government, so we will have to expect bumps in the road,” Masters concluded.