The Premier League has announced it will be introducing a number of extremes measures for health and safety to protect club staff and players once football resumes after the CODID-19 lockdown that stopped all sports events across the globe in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus.
The Premier League has yet to provide any details regarding how or when the season will be completed. That resulted in most throwing out any ideas or speculating when and how that will take place after sport in England ground to a halt with the country’s lockdown measures
There are a number of claims that some Premier League clubs are looking at returning their players to training in early May as the current lockdown is due to end on the 7th of May unless extended by the government, which can if it chooses to extend the lockdown to the end of May. This would, of course, see the season pushed back even more, and that could be even more so impacted if additional lockdown extensions and executed.
One area that has been addressed is that the league will ensure that dressing rooms are equipped for proper hygienic and will be thoroughly disinfected prior to players arrival. In addition, coaches will be required to be disinfected and sterilised while players will be required to provide private transport in their own cars and respect times between their scheduled arrivals.
Additional Protective Measures
That includes the scheduled teams ensuring that players take different routes to the dressing rooms and then remain as far as possible away from each other until the match begins, which is rather redundant considering the close proximity they will have on the field.
Clubs are also being requested to make changes to their dressing rooms to allow for starting teams, substitutes and goalkeepers all change in different areas, which means, three dressing areas per team. Additionally, it is being expected that players will be required to supply their own food and not share it with teammates and must maintain individually named water bottles to ensure there is no risk of players drinking from shared bottles.
It is clear the league is putting a strong emphasis towards social distancing and is requiring all players who use the teams fitness equipment must put on face-masks and gloves while ensuring they sanitise each piece of equipment before and after use. In addition, all doors within the facility will remain open so that the need to touch door handles is removed.