Premier League discusses isolated camps for hosting remaining games

The Premier League developed plans for clubs to play televised games in isolated camps in the midlands and London over June and July, to try and finish the 2019/20 season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The football authorities have been in discussion with games “behind closed doors” still seen as the only solution. Broad casting contracts and other financial concerns have put pressure on clubs to complete the season, as a “TV mega-event”.

The various clubs and their staffs would be confined to separate hotels away from their families, just like in an international tournament with full testing and quarantine safety conditions.

The games are set to take place in June and July, when a much more rigorous testing system is likely to be in place and curve has hopefully been flattened.

The clubs, all officials, cameramen and outside broadcast crews would have to be confined to quarantined bases.

The Premier League returning would be seen as a big step in the return to normality and also in getting the economy moving, especially given the size of the TV event the games would be, driving industries from advertising to gambling.

The current feeling is that “everything is on the table in order to get games played”. This “World Cup base” idea had been mooted when the Premier League was initially postponed at the start of March, but is one that the clubs have kept coming back to, and has been given more shape in the last few days.