People's lives must be put before EPL: Police

LONDON • Premier League clubs opposed to playing their remaining matches at neutral venues once the competition restarts must realise people's lives are at stake and football concerns should take a back seat, British police have said.

Mark Roberts, the national lead for football policing, told Sky Sports he was concerned about some of the comments he had heard regarding the conditions for restarting the league, which was suspended in the middle of March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Discussions are continuing about resuming games, after clubs were told only neutral venues approved from a health and safety point of view will be allowed.

The selected stadiums must be suitable for respecting safe distancing inside the stadium, able to keep people away from outside the ground and the local infection numbers must also be considered.

Brighton & Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber said he was opposed to surrendering home advantage and Christian Purslow, his counterpart at Aston Villa, said relegation would be a £200 million (S$350 million) catastrophe.

"The things that are starting to concern me a little as we get closer to a potential restart are comments we're hearing on the margins by people involved in football," Deputy Chief Constable Roberts said. "Comments such as 'we might get relegated', 'we don't want to play at neutral venues', 'when we played them away there were fans in the stadium', 'we play at home without fans that's a disadvantage', 'we want to get the trophy'.

"I get this in a football context that these are all a big deal. But in the context where 30,000 people have died and the total is still going up, then it's not such a big deal.

"We have to remind ourselves that (resuming football) cannot be at the risk of putting a single further life in jeopardy."

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE