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EPL clubs agree to five substitutes rule for season restart
There are 92 outstanding fixtures with the majority of teams facing nine matches in a six-week period.
Premier League clubs will be able to use five substitutes, rather than the usual three, when the season resumes on June 17, it was announced on Thursday. The changes will be temporary to mitigate the packed schedule clubs will have after a three-month suspension to the season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are 92 outstanding fixtures with the majority of teams facing nine matches in a six-week period.
“For the remainder of the 2019/20 season, the number of substitutes that can be used during a match will increase from three to five players,” a Premier League statement said after a meeting of shareholders on Thursday. “This is in line with the temporary law amendment made by the International Football Association Board last month.”
Clubs will be able to have nine substitutes on the bench, up from the usual seven.
Tottenham borrow 175 million pounds as COVID-19 pandemic hits revenue
Tottenham Hotspur have borrowed 175 million pounds ($220.40 million) from the Bank of England to ease the financial burden due to the loss of revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Premier League club said on Thursday.
The club said it estimated a revenue loss of more than 200 million pounds for the period until June 2021 due to the loss of income from matchday revenue, third party live events and other sporting events at their stadium.
Spurs said the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Ltd (THS) met the criteria for the government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) scheme to avail short-term loans and the funds will not be used to recruit new players.
“I said as early as March 18 that, in all my 20 years at the club, there have been many hurdles along the way but none of this magnitude,” Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said in a statement here.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown itself to be the most serious of them all. It’s imperative that we now all work together – scientists, technologists, the government and the live events sector – to find a safe way to bring spectators back to sport and entertainment venues.”
The stadium, which cost one billion pounds to build, was set to host Saracens’ annual ‘Big Game’ rugby fixture and Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight title bout against Kubrat Pulev as well as NFL matches later this year.
