The Premier League game between Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur will go ahead but without the coach of Crystal Palace, Patrick Vieira, who tested positive for coronavirus ahead of the match.
Initially, Crystal Palace tried to convince the Premier League board to postpone the league game because of the number of cases at the club.
But the Premier League board insisted that the league game which is scheduled to kick off at 16:00 on Boxing Day at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would go on as planned.
A few hours before the game, Crystal Palace released a statement to confirm that Patrick Vieira has tested positive for the virus which means that he would not be on the touchline during the league game.
The club’s statement said: “We can confirm that Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira is self-isolating after returning a positive test for Covid-19, and will be absent from the touchline for today’s [Sunday] match against Spurs.
“Assistant manager Osiadeputizes will deputise for Vieira for today’s match.”
We can confirm that Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira is self-isolating after returning a positive test for Covid-19, and will be absent from the touchline for today’s match against Spurs.
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) December 26, 2021
Assistant manager Osian Roberts will deputise for Vieira for today’s match.#CPFC pic.twitter.com/nBNmkLlxMG
Patrick Vieira is the second football manager that has been confirmed carrier of the coronavirus ahead of a Boxing Day Premier League game. Recall that Futballnews has reported that the coach of Aston Villa, Steven Gerrard tested positive for the virus ahead of a Boxing Day clash with Chelsea.
If the Premier League board had approved Crystal Palace’s request for their league game against Tottenham Hotspur to be postponed, it would have been the fourth Boxing Day game to be postponed.
Before now, high number of coronavirus cases have forced the Premier League to postpone Liverpool v Leeds, Wolves v Watford and Burnley v Everton Boxing Day league games.
In less than a month, the Premier League has had to postpone about 13 league games due to the pandemic and the league body is yet to confirm when the postponed games will take place.
Before it was announced that Patrick Vieira had tested positive for coronavirus, the former Arsenal footballer told reporters on the eve of Christmas that the club was worried about the increasing cases of the virus.
Then, the French tactician confirmed that Crystal Palace had a couple of coronavirus cases at the club, adding that no one at the club is certain about how bad it might get.
“I hope we are going to be OK but when you are looking at the number of cases around (the country), we start to be worried”, Vieira said.
“We had a couple of cases in our football club in the last couple of days. We try our best to prevent and avoid a situation but it is worrying because we don’t know how the next couple of days will go.”
