Omicron threatens fixture pile-up in EPL

English football fears a fixture scheduling nightmare as the Omicron COVID-19 variant spreads rapidly around the United Kingdom.

One Premier League match was postponed at the weekend due to an outbreak and two more are in jeopardy in the midweek programme. A second-tier Championship match, QPR v Sheffield United, which was due to be played on Monday, has been called off.

There were 42 cases of COVID-19 in the week to Sunday after 3,805 players and club staff were tested, a small percentage but also the highest figure since testing figures began being announced in May 2020 and a 250 per cent rise on the previous week’s 12.

With fixtures coming thick-and-fast during the Christmas holiday period it is feared postponements could inflict chaos on a highly-congested schedule.

Manchester United closed their training ground on Monday, following the example of Tottenham Hotspur last week, while Aston Villa cancelled training after a number of positive tests. Norwich City, Brighton, Leicester City and Brentford have also had players ruled out due to positive tests.

As a result the Premier League have written to all clubs telling them to restore full protocols, which had been relaxed in late October at clubs with 85 per cent of players vaccinated.

Tottenham are in danger of being thrown out of the Europa Conference after their final group match with Rennes was called off at short notice on Thursday. It proved impossible to reschedule the match before the December 31 deadline.

Tottenham are now waiting on the verdict of UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary body to see if they remain in the competition.

Spurs, who said eight players and five members of staff tested positive for Covid-19, had Sunday’s match at Brighton postponed.

The London club hope to be able to play on Thursday against Leicester who have been playing through a COVID outbreak themselves.

Manchester United are in talks with the Premier League over whether it is safe for them to travel to the Brentford on Tuesday. United closed their Carrington training ground for 24 hours on Monday due to a number of positive COVID-19 tests.

Four positive tests among players and staff were recorded after Saturday’s win at Norwich.

The Premier League’s 2021-22 handbook says that matches should go ahead if a club has 14 or more players available on its squad list, but decisions can be taken on a game-by-game basis by the Premier League board.

Brighton manager Graham Potter said there were “three or four” positive tests among his playing squad ahead of Wednesday night’s visit of Wolves. He added: “We are trying to monitor and make sure we are not playing games with guys who have COVID.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he had urged his players to get their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots which are being made available to every adult in the UK.

“The doctors suggest they have to do it,” Guardiola said on Monday. He added: “We speak with the players every day to say be careful. Stay healthy, wear masks, social distance.

“It’s Christmas, the tendency is to party and go out. But the virus is still here.”

Football is not the only sport affected. Teenaged British US Open winner Emma Raducanu has tested positive while in Abu Dhabi and been forced to pull out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championships exhibition event.

British government Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday new daily infections in England were around 200,000. Britons have been told to work from home again where possible.

Omicron threatens fixture pile-up in EPL
Independent Information