The Premier League will not be affected when the United Kingdom goes into a new phase of lockdown which will commence on the 5th of November. The government of the country announced on Saturday that the country will go into lockdown for four weeks starting from Thursday until December 2, 2020.
While announcing this during a press conference, the Prime Minister of the country, Boris Johnson, said the new restrictions were to prevent the continuous spread of the coronavirus pandemic. When asked whether the Premier League will continue during the lockdown, the Prime Minister said: “Yes to the Premier League.”
The country is currently facing a new wave of the virus as the number of new cases is increasing daily. Just on Saturday, October 31, the country recorded 21,950 thousand new cases of the virus.
As of the time of publishing this report, the country has 1,011,660 confirmed cases while 46,555 of the cases have resulted in deaths. In the last 28 days, at least 326 people died due to coronavirus related complications.
As it stands, the United Kingdom is one of the 9 countries in the world that has recorded over a million cases of the virus. Other countries are the US, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia.
PM Boris Johnson has announced a second national lockdown for England to prevent a "medical and moral disaster" for the NHS
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 31, 2020
He said Christmas may be "very different" this year, but he hoped taking action now would mean families can be togetherhttps://t.co/menzqR6Qx6 pic.twitter.com/BDqTI1oAK5
Due to the alarming numbers, Boris Johnson had to announce a national lockdown for the second time in the year. Unlike the one declared in March, the Premier League and other lower leagues played behind closed doors will not be affected but grassroots football will be affected.
The fact that the Premier League will continue during the lockdown is seen as a welcome development because people who are forced to remain at home can watch the games on television and it will serve as a distraction from the pandemic.
However, the English football association has been thrown into a state of confusion because of the FA Cup which is made up of 40 clubs, 9 of the clubs are non-league clubs that are not be permitted to function during the one-month lockdown.
The English FA had said in a statement that the football governing body would have to wait for further directive from the government before the next course of action can be determined over the FA Cup competition for the 2020-2021 season.
Another aspect of the announcement which is not clear was the aspect of the English clubs that have European football engagements. As at the time of publishing this report, it was not clear whether those clubs involved in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League will be permitted to host foreign clubs in the country during the lockdown.
