Premier League stars are being briefed on detailed proposals for a return to action with a hotel lockdown plan.
Mirror Sport understands a number of clubs are now discussing the different ideas on the table with their players who believe they are gearing up to try and get games underway again.
They believe the most likely is the hotel plan revealed in Mirror Sport last month where players are put into lockdown in nominated hotels for up to six weeks while the fixture list is finished.
The home team will occupy one half of the hotel, the away team will then check in to play their game and that section of the hotel will be deep cleaned after they check out.
They have been working towards using their Premier League stadiums but playing games at club training grounds and nominated training centres – like St George’s Park – is also an option.
Most teams have got nine Premier League games left, four have ten games and it would mean squeezing them into a short space of time, organising hotel and stadium lockdown.
But players believe the clubs are gearing up towards a return to training next month and Arsenal indicated that could be the case after revealing plans for first team stars to return under strict guidelines from Monday.
It is also understood that clubs are expecting a further update from the Premier League this week from the Government who have begun detailed planning under their “Project Restart” programme.
They are looking at plans across all sports about how they can return and football is firmly on the agenda even though at this stage it remains a discussion about how rather than when because no-one can be sure of any date amid the coronavirus crisis.
However, the Premier League’s best case scenario is to restart formal training on May 18, games then resuming from June 8 and the season completed in six weeks.
UEFA want domestic seasons completed by mid-August to clear the way for the Champions League final to be played on August 29 after a mini tournament from the semi final and possibly quarter finals onwards.
There is a Premier League meeting on Friday which will involve all 20 clubs and the hope is the Government will provide some further advice before then to allow them to step up planning.
They believe players will need at least three weeks’ training – as a mini pre-season – before they can return to games so they are still hoping that will be in May but even if it was in June they could still start in July and finish in August under the hotel lockdown plan.
Clubs are also telling players that they must be ready to return to training within 48 hours’ notice as it was revealed last week many have gone abroad to be with their families but then may face difficulties in getting back to England.
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The lockdown plan would see games played almost every day which the authorities recognise would go a long way to keeping football fans happy, it would help with the lockdown and the Government have made it clear they want games free-to-air.
That is unlikely to be an easy process as showing most games for free would cause serious issues for Sky and BT Sport as many armchair viewers have postponed or cancelled packages and may therefore be reluctant to return if they suddenly do not have to pay.
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