Liverpool City Council are still awaiting official guidelines from the government on new biomedical regulations for stadiums before confirming a key meeting about the Merseyside derby.
A meeting of the Ground Safety Advisory Group (SAG) has been pencilled in for Monday morning but the local authority, as of this morning, still had not received documentation from central government, on revised safety regulations relating to public heath, which would allow them to rubber-stamping the video conference.
The derby has been confirmed as taking place on Sunday, June 21 at 7pm and will be shown free-to-air on Sky - but whether Goodison will host the game remains up in the air.
Everton, Liverpool, the emergency services and fans will all be represented on next week's proposed call and the hope is that after the meeting both clubs will have clarity - if not full confirmation - if Goodison is going to get the go-ahead or if it will be switched to a neutral venue.
The Blues said this afternoon: "Negotiations over the venue for Everton’s second league meeting with Liverpool this term are ongoing."
In a separate club statement, following the confirmation of the first three rounds of fixtures for the Premier League restart, Liverpool said the venue for the derby is "set to be confirmed in due course."
The government's guidelines on how clubs must make their grounds secure to host matches will not come as a surprise to Everton who have been working closely with the Premier League on the matter but the local council needs to review them before confirming the all-important SAG meeting.
Monday's proposed conference call is designed so that recommendations can be offered to the council's licencing department over whether to grant Goodison the safety certificate it requires to host the game later this month.
The meeting is scheduled to last for two hours but may take longer if, as planned, the SAG discuss the staging of the other remaining games at Goodison and Anfield.
Premier League clubs were, earlier this week, presented with draft proposals for how a matchday would look, and the maximum number of people allowed inside of stadiums.
