Guidance required over Covid-19 before clubs bring players back for training

Arsenal, West Ham United and Brighton and Hove Albion hosted individual sessions as they gear up for a potential return to action on June 8. Players are required to keep the Government’s social distancing guidelines, not due to be reviewed until May 7.

Sheffield United were the last Premier League club to stop group training because of coronavirus, but there is no word yet on whether they now plan to resume.

Leeds United’s training ground remains open for treatment and rehabilitation, but other players were stopped from attending for individual outdoor training after complaints. The Whites will therefore not allow this until the Football League advise it is safe.

As League One Doncaster Rovers and League Two Bradford City have furloughed players – and in Rovers’ case, manager Darren Moore – they cannot report for work.

Earlier this month, Football League chairman Rick Parry told clubs not to expect any training before May 16, and suggested giving players annual leave.

A quick return could cause logistical problems. For example, all Sheffield United’s players are thought to be in this country but Barnsley coach Gerhard Struber and players Patrick Schmidt, Marcel Ritzmaier and Michael Sollbauer are in Austria, while team-mates Bambo Diaby and Daniel Pinillos are in Spain.

Health secretary Matt Hancock stressed in yesterday’s Downing Street briefing the rules will change with the number of cases but it has been suggested those arriving in the UK could soon be quarantined for up to two weeks.

With Covid-19 hospital deaths falling and other leagues preparing to emerge from lockdowns, a Government working party will this week meet sporting authorities to discuss the logistics of resuming.

Serie A clubs can return to training on May 4, with group sessions from May 18. La Liga are targeting a return in the second week in May and Germany’s Bundesliga teams are already training in small groups, aiming to resume matches on May 9.

The Football League is planning around playing in controlled environments – possibly “approved neutral venues” – within a 56-day window and the Premier League are said to be looking at that timescale. Most clubs have nine league matches to play, though Sheffield United have 10 and Doncaster 12. The 56 days would include play-offs and probably the FA Cup with only Premier League sides, including the Blades, in the quarter-finals.

FIFA has proposed allowing five substitutes in competitions restarting or starting in 2020 – almost certainly meaning next season too. If approved, it would be up to leagues to choose whether to adopt the rule.

The Government are keen for football to resume for national morale, which points to making matches freely available to watch, whereas part of football’s motivation is protecting lucrative television contracts, which might not be compatible with that.

Until the Government meets its targets, allowing widespread testing for all the personnel present for “behind-closed-door” games – reckoned to be around 300 for a Premier League fixture – will not sit comfortably but will be important.

The Football League is consulting on changing its financial regulations to make allowances for the economic problems, but some clubs are already taking major decisions.

Colchester United, sixth in League Two, will next month release four players with a combined 163 appearances in 2019-20, despite chairman Robbie Cowling claiming, “under normal circumstances I would have been determined to re-sign” them. Manager Graeme Jones has left Championship Luton Town by “mutual agreement”.

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