Premier League sides are keen to push back the start date of the 2021/22 season to ensure their players are given a proper rest between campaigns.
The end to the 2019/20 season was delayed after the COVID-19 lockdown, but in an attempt to try and get things back to normal, the length of pre-season ahead of 2020/21 was cut short, giving players just a few weeks of down time before competitive fixtures started again.
That truncated pre-season has been blamed for a rising number of injuries this season, and as noted by The Athletic’s David Ornstein, teams are keen to avoid the same thing happening against next year.
The current campaign is scheduled to finish on May 23, with the 2021/22 set to kick off on August 7, but a number of teams are concerned about their players’ involvement at this summer’s European Championships and Olympics, which were both pushed back a year because of the pandemic.
The Euros isn’t due to finish until July 11, so any players who reach the final would have just three weeks to recover and prepare for the new season, and that’s not even considering any quarantine laws which may come into play after the tournament.
As a compromise, the Premier League could restart on August 14, the same day as the Championship and the rest of the Football League, giving players at least a month to prepare themselves for the new season.
“People will say the players had three months off last season during the (COVID-19) lockdown but that was cancelled out by a very short summer and intense programme this season,” a club executive is quoted as saying. “The schedule for the last two years, for reasons out of everyone’s control, has been relentless.”
The uncertainty surrounding the start date of the new season has only added to obvious problems clubs are facing when trying to plan their pre-season training camps.
Teams usually like to jet off to all corners of the world for their pre-season, but that’s obviously not ideal at this current moment in time. Many are waiting for further government advice, but a lot will depend on the world’s continued response to the pandemic.
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