Leeds United promotion hopes raised as Premier League steps up return

Yesterday clubs unanimously voted to allow contact training, the penultimate phase of “project restart”. Today they will meet to discuss a resumption date they hope will be in mid- to late-June.

Although the Whites are in the Championship, the news is important to them because it will be very hard for the top division to block relegation if it completes its 2019-20 fixtures. Leeds are strong favourites to take the place of whoever comes down.

“Squads are now able to train as a group and engage in tackling while minimising any unnecessary close contact,” said a Premier League statement.

“Strict medical protocols are in place to ensure the training ground is the safest environment possible and players and staff will continue to be tested for Covid-19 twice a week.

“Discussions are ongoing as work continues towards resuming the season, when conditions allow.”

Championship clubs only returned to training on Monday, but are expected to follow the Premier League’s lead.

One reason the top division has been able to move so quickly is because so few players and staff have been found to have coronavirus in three rounds of testing.

Four more tested positive yesterday, taking the total number to 12 from 1,752 tests.

There are still some important issues to be ironed out, and it may be that the league’s June 12 target proves

beyond them, with players and managers anxious to ensure enough preparation time for matches. June 19 or 26 could be options, though.

The Premier League’s return to training protocols, the very small number of positive coronavirus tests, the use of GPS technology as a tracing tool, research carried out by a leading sports technology company and an advisory group for black, Asian and minority ethnic players appear to have gone a long way to easing players’ concerns about training. Statsports analysed pre-pandemic training sessions and found that players spend an average of three seconds within 2m of team-mates and/or opponents.

The Premier League had initially been given a deadline of Monday of this week to inform UEFA of their plans and schedules for completing the season but the date was chosen because there was due to be an executive committee meeting yesterday. That has since been put back to June 17, buying them more time.

UEFA want to hold their Champions League and Europa League finals at the end of August as the finale to the disrupted domestic season. The Premier League are said to be keen for 2020-21 to kick-off in September.

Leeds are top of the Championship, seven points above the play-off places with nine matches remaining.

The Football League are keen to see three clubs promoted to the Premier League as usual this summer, and have suggested if the Championship cannot be completed, it should be decided on point-per-game. Leeds would be champions if it came to that.