UEFA MAY WAIT until November to finish off the 2019/20 Premier League season.

European football’s governing body is due to hold a conference call with the heads of their federations this week. In this meeting, four potential solutions will be suggested to try and solve the fixture crisis.

The preferred option is to resume football in June and finish the season from there, pausing for a two-week break, before the 2020/21 campaign begins in August.

Circumstances, however, may not allow them to implement that plan, especially as the UK government’s deputy chief medical adviser today warned that life in Britain would not return to normal for six months.

“I am not saying we would be in complete lockdown for six months,” said Dr Jenny Harries, “but as a nation we have to be really, really responsible and keep doing what we’re all doing until we’re sure we can gradually start lifting various interventions which are likely to be spaced until we gradually come back to a normal way of living.”

In other words, it would be wildly optimistic to expect any football to be seen in April or May, by which stage players would have to undergo a pre-season to get ready for a return to action.

But even if a June return is ruled out, one of the options Uefa is considering – according a well-placed source in the organisation – is to simply wait ‘for as long as possible’ to finalise this campaign, and then shorten next season. Asked how long they were prepared to wait, the source suggested November as an end-date.

From a financial perspective, clubs are certainly prepared to hold on, with £750 million at stake if this season ends prematurely, as TV rights holders look on anxiously to see how events unfold.

Given how every club would be severely hit if this season is declared null and void – for example, the top four could lose out on as much as £80 million each – it now seems likelier that this 2019/20 season will be completed. But at this stage, no one knows when.