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The Premier League will have to seriously consider playing any remaining fixtures from the 2019/20 season at neutral venues - if the programme is to be completed, said a leading police chief on Wednesday.

Responding to news that the Premier League is hoping to somehow conclude the current campaign, Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts has advised the League to seriously consider relocating the remaining matches in order to prevent unnecessary strain on emergency services.




"We’ve done the work assessing the remaining fixtures - I think it’s 92 to finish the Premier League season and 341 in the Football League, seven to complete the FA Cup," he told the PA.

"Playing all those fixtures would present challenges; that’s an awful lot of people moving around the country and certainly if they were all played at the originally-planned stadiums then I think that does present some challenges.

"I think we all need to look at options about what games absolutely need to be played. Let’s look at how they can be managed, potentially at their own stadiums but equally if we can see benefits of playing at a neutral, controlled venue.

"This is from both from the health aspects of it but also minimising any disruption to the police, the ambulance service and all those other functions that are going to be stretched as we go back to normality and people start going about their normal business again."




And Roberts also warned that should fans ignore rules regarding social-distancing in the event of the Premier League resuming, there is potential for matches to be abandoned.

"One of the things that the Premier League and the Football League are acutely aware of is that clubs would have to get the message out that if matches are taking place they need the continued buy-in of supporters and the public," he warned.

"There might be a fair deal that if people start gathering and causing public health or public order issues then that might mean that games can’t actually go on."

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