Football’s Project Restart has moved a step closer to reality.
The second round of testing at Premier League clubs – this time including Norwich City – revealed two people at two different clubs, tested positive, one of them a player at Bournemouth.
There will be more testing today and tomorrow before representatives of all 20 top-flight clubs meet again on Wednesday when they are expected to vote on whether to move to phase two – limited full-contact training which, if they agree, could begin as soon as the following day.
On Thursday, possible schedules for a return to playing, the use of home grounds and broadcasting will head the agenda while there will also be discussion on what to do should they fail to conclude the season.
The second round of tests involved 996 players and staff from the 20 clubs – the two people who received positive results will isolate for seven days.
Staff at Norwich City were the only ones from the Premier League clubs not involved in the first round of testing.
The second round shows a drop in positive tests from the first, where six people were shown to have the virus, including Watford defender Adrian Mariappa and Burnley coach Ian Woan.
A Premier League statement said “no specific details as to clubs or individuals will be provided by the league and results will be made public after each round of testing”.
“The six people who tested positive in the first round of testing were not tested this time due to being in self-isolation, while the capacity of testing at each club has increased from 40 to 50.”
The next step in Project Restart depends on government guidance for the second phase of contact training for elite sports.
The Bundesliga played its second round of matches at the weekend while in Spain, La Liga has been given the green light to resume playing from June 12.
That’s the date the Premier League had been working to, and while that now looks to be more and more unlikely, the organisation’s chief executive Richard Masters says he is “as confident as we can be” about restarting football next month. Asked what date the Premier League was targeting for a return, Masters said that it must be “flexible” and could learn from the resumption of the Bundesliga.
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