Premier League Chief Claims All 20 Clubs Against Finishing Season at Neutral Venues

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has revealed that all 20 clubs prefer not to use neutral venues to finish the season 'if at all possible', while suggesting that a lot still has to happen before key decisions are made on how exactly football will return in England..

The bid to complete the 2019/20 Premier League season following its suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic, titled 'Project Restart', has been fraught with complications.

The proposal reportedly involved the remaining top-flight games being played at eight to ten neutral venues, with a maximum of 300 essential personnel at each fixture, with fixtures resuming in June.

It had previously been reported that only teams at the lower end of the division had been against the neutral venues plan, with Brighton particularly vocal in their disagreement, claiming they would lose home advantage which would potentially threaten their Premier League status.

However, it seems Brighton are not alone, with Premier League chief Masters claiming that every Premier League club still holds a preference to conclude the season in their own homes 'if at all possible'.

“I think everybody would prefer to play home and away if at all possible. And I think it's clear to see that some clubs feel more strongly about that than others," Masters said, as quoted by The Mirror, .

“It is an ongoing dialogue and obviously we've been talking - since Covid-19 became an issue - we've been talking to the authorities about the conditions in which we could get the Premier League back up and running and taking all that advice on board.

“But it is an ongoing dialogue. There is not much i can say about that, other than we are in contact with the authorities and listening to that advice while also representing club views in those discussions.”

The government and police had been pushing for the use of neutral venues.

Masters was speaking following a meeting between clubs over the 'Project Restart' proposals.

On what was discussed during the meeting, Masters added: “We talked about neutral venues – obviously it is the preference of all our clubs to play at home if at all possible, but all must be cognisant of what authorities are telling us and we will continue with that conversation.

“We won’t be playing until the middle of June, it doesn’t seem quite right to be talking about playing before we’ve actually taken the decision to return to the first stage of training, but obviously in terms of how those matches will take place, there’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge and we will continue to assess the circumstances then.”