MANCHESTER UNITED LEGEND Gary Neville says a “festival of football” could bring the 2019-20 campaign to a close, with Premier League stars prepared to “play every day for nine days”.
The vast majority of clubs in the English top-flight still have nine fixtures left to take in this season.
It remains to be seen when said games will go ahead, with competitive action having been shut down indefinitely during the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities around the world are still hoping to get their respective schedules completed, but there has also been plenty of talk regarding divisions being declared null and void.
Neville believes that situation can be avoided as there will be a desire on the part of those on and off the field to deliver a “spectacular” finale once restrictions are lifted.
The eight-time Premier League title winner told Sky Sports: “The last thing I’m worried about is sorting out the fixtures.
“If football players need to play every day for nine days to finish the Premier League as a worst-case scenario, they would do it because they’d get their heads around it and make it a festival of football.
“It would be something spectacular. Football can bring some hope and joy to the country when we finally come out of this crisis.
“Doing a festival of football where the league is finished in two weeks, the Champions League gets finished in a week and the FA Cup is finished in four days could be something quite special.
“I’m not saying they are the examples that should be followed, but there could be something quite spectacular about football fans coming together after this crisis is over.
“It would bring some joy back to the nation as football does impact so many people.”
The ex-England international added: “The least of my worries are the calendar as once the crisis is over I think footballers, the authorities, the associations will want to play as many matches as psychically possible in a week, a month or a three month period to get everything back on track.
“If you think about the Christmas period, clubs play four games in eight days. When we were going to win the Premier League with Manchester United we had a backlog of fixtures due to FA Cup and we played four games in a week. It is possible over a six or an eight-week period that there might be four games a week.
“I’m not concerned about squeezing more games in. Players, clubs, managers and physios will understand that you can’t complain about fixture congestion next season due to the circumstances. It’s a global crisis and football has to react and compromise.”
Premier League football has been postponed until at least the end of April, while UEFA has pushed Euro 2020 back 12 months in an effort to help get domestic campaigns completed by the end of June.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
