Due to a Covid outbreak at Manchester United, Brentford’s game against United on Tuesday was postponed; Frank wants to ensure that the Boxing Day fixtures go ahead by pushing for the weekend’s entire round of Premier League fixtures, as well as next week’s Carabao Cup matches, to be postponed as well.
The entire Premier League schedule for this weekend has been postponed by Brentford manager Thomas Frank in order to “break the chain” on the present Covid crisis.
Frank indicated that he has spoken with the Premier League as well as other league managers, all of whom he claims are in agreement, before to his team’s travel to Southampton on Saturday.During the press conference, Frank was informed that the Brentford camp had four more positive Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of positive Covid-19 cases among Brentford players and staff to 13.
The match between Brentford and Manchester United was postponed on Tuesday because to a Covid outbreak in the United camp, and Frank believes that drastic measures are needed to prevent the situation from growing.
“We think we should postpone the full round of Premier League games this weekend,” he said on Thursday morning.”Covid cases are going through the roof at all Premier League clubs, everyone is dealing with it and having problems.”
To postpone this round and also the Carabao Cup round would give everyone a week at least, or four or five days to clean and do everything at the training ground so everything is clean and you break the chain.
“Frank believes that postponing this weekend’s round of top-flight competitions will be adequate to ensure that the holiday schedule can run smoothly.”
We fully respect that we want to play and it is important football keeps going, and this way we can make sure Boxing Day keeps going, I’m 100 per cent sure of that,” added Frank.
This Omicron variant is running like wildfire around the world and I think we need to do all we can to protect and avoid it. I believe we can accomplish a lot by closing down training fields for three, four, or five days and then reopening them.”
The match between Burnley and Watford has been postponed due to an outbreak in the Hornets’ squad. The decision was made just two and a half hours before kick-off.
During a press conference on Thursday, Clarets defender Matt Lowton was asked what he thought of Frank’s offer, and he replied: “I’m not sure, to be honest.”
“From my point of view, I just want to play football. I think from a player’s point of view, we want to play – we want to come to the weekend and have the game (at Aston Villa on Saturday), have the buzz, that’s what we’ve trained for\sall week.”
However, the safety of players, fans, and others is vital. As a result, I hope the game can continue, but I see why – I think if they named it that, you can understand why. Hopefully, we will be able to travel safely.”
What games have been canceled so far?
Five Premier League games have been postponed in the last five days, with a number of additional fixtures being rescheduled as well.
Tottenham vs Rennes – Thursday December 9 – Europa Conference League
Brighton vs Tottenham – Sunday December 12 – Premier League
Sheffield Utd vs QPR – Monday December 13 – Championship
Brentford vs Man Utd – Tuesday December 14 – Premier League
Burnley vs Watford – Wednesday December 15 – Premier League
Man City Women vs Leicester City Women – Wednesday December 15 – League Cup
Leicester vs Tottenham – Thursday December 16 – Premier League
Manchester United vs Brighton – Saturday December 18 – Premier League
QPR vs Swansea – Saturday December 18 – Championship
Reading vs Luton – Saturday December 18 – Championship
Millwall vs Preston – Saturday December 18 – Championship
Gillingham vs Crewe – Saturday December 18 – League One
Crawley vs Oldham – Saturday December 18 – League Two
Barrow vs Northampton – Saturday December 18 – League Two
