While the Premier League is preparing for the return of the league action in June, football pundit Gary Neville was unimpressed with the decision to resume the league. For him, it was all because of money, thus putting footballer’s lives at risk of being infected by COVID-19.
The former Man United defender said, it’s all too soon to resume the league, as the danger of getting infected is still relatively high.
“The FIFA medical officer said that football should not take place before September. I think if it was a non-economic decision there would be no football for months,” Neville said on Sky Sports’ The Football Show.
“People are now assessing risk. How many people have to die playing football in the Premier League before it becomes unpalatable? One? One player? One member of staff goes into intensive care? What risk do we have to take? The discussion is purely economic.”
Several teams such as Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton and West Ham already resuming the training this week, with full training due May 18.
Premier League matches will likely have to be played behind closed doors while players and staff need to go through testing.
But Neville believes footballers are willing to take the risk of playing football again because they needed to be.
“There will be people who will view it as a risk factor,” he added.
“Players themselves will want to go and play. Players at the lower levels will want to go play and 1,400 players are out of contract.
“Clubs have huge investment in this season. Think about what’s at stake for Leeds, it’s absolutely massive. There are big prizes up for grabs. There’s huge economic loss. It clouds people’s minds in terms of the risk that they’re willing to take.
“There are some players with conditions that could be more at risk of coronavirus than others and that is something that needs to be assessed.
“If health comes first, there is only one outcome at this moment in time. How many players have got asthma? How many players have diabetes? Have they assessed all of these things and are they willing to put those people at risk?
“If they are, we’ll all turn up and commentate on those matches. Fingers crossed, every day we’ll not have an incident which would be one of our players or a member of staff falling ill.”