The Premier League’s Director of Policy Bill Bush has written to clubs to inform them that no more than four matches could now be held at neutral venues.
It emerged last week that a number of Premier League matches were set to be played at neutral venues when the 2019/20 campaign resumes on June 17.
Mark Roberts , the National Police’s Chiefs’ Council football lead officer, later declared that six fixtures were set to be moved to neutral venues.
The matches which have been requested to take place at neutral grounds are Manchester City v Liverpool, Manchester City v Newcastle, Manchester United v Sheffield United, Newcastle v Liverpool and Everton v Liverpool.
But now in his correspondence to clubs, first reported by Sports Mail, Bush declared that the Premier League are continuing to review the situation and the number could be decreased.
“Merseyside Police released a further statement on Friday that, in their view, the Premier League matches scheduled for their area were within their capacity to cover,” he wrote.
From further enquiries, I understand that the process of review continues at the other two local police forces which had previously requested fixtures be moved.
Of course, in the current circumstances, risks still remain and, as a fallback, we will continue to prepare for neutral venues for any match, in case they are needed, so that we can react swiftly to any withdrawal of a safety certificate.
“However, it would appear that there is every possibility that the final list of matches proposed for movement to neutral venues for policing reasons will be reduced to a maximum of four, depending on the final decisions by Greater Manchester Police and Northumbria Police.”
Before he continued: “It has always been the case that matters relating to safety certificates are for decision by the local licensing authority, advised by their local police force,’ he added, emphasising a point underlined by the Government last weekend.
