Professional football will continue despite England facing a third national lockdown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday night that the country will face an immediate full-scale lockdown that will see all Primary and Secondary schools close.
As with the first lockdown in 2020, UK residents are being asked to remain at home whenever possible to protect the National Health Service.
The Prime Minister’s announcement came after the UK’s COVID alert level was raised from Level 4 to Level 5, the highest possible, for the first time.
However, despite a third national shut down, professional football will continue to operate as normal, unlike in 2020 where all competitions were suspended for a three-month period.
The Premier League and English Football League will continue despite ongoing discussions over a potential circuit breaker with a large rise in COVID-19 cases amongst clubs.
Grassroots and academy matches will be cancelled, however.
England’s top-flight reiterated in their latest statement that there were no plans to pause the fixtures schedule, despite several fixtures being called off.
Fulham’s games at Tottenham and Burnley plus Manchester City’s trip to Everton have been postponed in the past week while the EFL has been hit by a raft of games being called off amid fears about the FA Cup third round this weekend.
There are fears that the Premier League would face paying further rebates to TV broadcasters after they were forced to shell out £330million for the 2019/20 season.
