The COVID 19 pandemic has affected many industries including sports and many major sports events were forced to cancel or postpone scheduled matches in March. This includes the English Premier League or the EPL which announced the suspension of the season in the same month.
Since then, the UEFA and the league itself have been aiming to return in June and fortunately, even before their target date, they were able to get the green light from the government. May has been the month when sports events like the German Bundesliga started to return and so it made sense that other sports leagues in Europe would follow.
The EPL just recently concluded with Liverpool as the champions. Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United all qualified for the Champions League. Many people are looking forward to this and the Champions League today’s match odds and predictions are coming in as early as now.
The Champions League final is set to happen on August 23, 2020, at the Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal. However, not long after that, the next season of the EPL is already scheduled to start.
The stakeholders of the Premier League have agreed to start the next season on September 12, 2020. With this, the final match round is also scheduled to take place on May 23, 2021. There are still no fixtures scheduled for the next season, but the Premier League said that it will continue to consult the FA and the EFL regarding this.
The Premier League said in its statement, “Premier League Shareholders today agreed to start the 2020-21 Premier League season on Sept. 12. The final match round of the campaign will take place on May 23. The Premier League will continue to consult The FA and EFL regarding the scheduling of all domestic competitions."
While it is exciting to have the EPL back soon, there could be challenges that could arise because of this. Recently, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard talked about this in an interview about their match with Bayern Munich. For Chelsea, even if they get defeated by Bavaria in their last match, the team will only have 35 days to prepare for the next season of the EPL.
"I am guessing we will be told when we start and that will be dependent on how we will go against Bayern Munich. It is not ideal if we carry on against Bayern - the players need to be given a break to play at the level and the quality product that the Premier League is,” Lampard said.
"Even in a worst-case scenario, we don't go through against Bayern, the 12th feels too early for me for the players to start playing again. The players need a break. That is why we have pulled two hamstrings and had players pull out of the game before this," he added.
The match between Chelsea and Arsenal that left the Blues defeated with a score of 2-1 left the team with three players injured. Cesar Azpilicueta, Christian Pulisic, and Pedro Rodriguez were all injured during this match and Lampard fears that more players could also be injured.
Lampard also implored the Premier League to ensure that the clubs that will participate next season will be participating with a level playing field. He said, "I would like to think the Premier League would look seriously at that. Hopefully, they give us a fair start next season. We deserve to be given a fair start as a Premier League club competing in the Champions League."
The International Football Association Board, meanwhile, confirmed that the leagues still have the option of continuing the five subs rule for the next season. However, it is still unknown whether the Premier League will still be in favor of this.
Likely, no fans will still be allowed at the start of the next season. However, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said that the government is targeting to allow fans in stadiums again in October. We’ll still have to wait whether the government will finally allow this, but of course, this will all depend on the trend of the number of cases in the country.
For now, the EPL fans can only wait for the schedule of the fixtures of the next season. While Lampard has already expressed his thoughts about this, it remains unlikely that the next season will be moved to the latter part of the year.