SAN FRANCISCO, May 29, (THEWILL) – The English Premier League (EPL) season is set to resume on June 17, with games between Manchester City v Arsenal and Aston Villa v Sheffield United while Italy’s Serie A can resume on June 20 after a three-month absence in a country hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
According to BBC the two EPL matches are the ones in hand that will place all the teams in the league level on 29 games played, before a complete fixture list would then be played from June 19 to 21.
The Premier League has been suspended since March 13, due to the COVID-19 pandemic but is keen to have the 2019-20 campaign come to an end by August 2, with the FA Cup final then scheduled to hold a week later on the weekend of August 8-9.
On Wednesday, the EPL clubs voted unanimously to approve a return to contact training a development that can now allow teams train as a group and also engage in tackling while minimising any unnecessary close contact.
Speaking on the Serie A, Italian sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Thursday: “The Technical and Scientific Committee gave its agreement on the protocol and the federation assured me that it had a Plan B and a Plan C,” Spadafora said after a video conference meeting with Italian football chiefs.
“In light of these considerations, the championship can resume on June 20.”
Italy football federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina assured the minister that there would be a play-off system if the championship were again interrupted.
“We had a very useful meeting,” said Spadafora.
“From the start, I said that football could restart once all the security conditions had been met and with the agreement of the Technical and Scientific Committee on the different protocols.”
Spadafora said that Italian Cup semi-final matches, between Inter Milan and Napoli and AC Milan and Juventus, could be played the week before the championship returned.
“Italy has started to return to normal life again, it is only right that football should do the same,” he continued.
“I also hope to be able to send a positive signal to the whole country by taking advantage of the week from June 13 to 20 to conclude the Italian Cup,” he added with hopes of staging the semi-finals on the weekend of June 13-14 and the final on June 17.
