Manchester United on Monday proposed to the Premier League to postpone the 17th round of the Premier League between Brentford on Tuesday night, and although the Premier League hesitated, it finally agreed to the Red Devils' request, officially announcing that the match would be postponed and a make-up date would be chosen.
British media revealed that a number of Manchester United players and staff showed positive for the new crown in a routine test on Sunday. Among them, a part of United's under-23 youth team players are also in the category of positive COVID-19 tests, and some of them are members of the first team. For this reason, Carrington's training ground had to be closed for 24 hours, meaning United's first team could not train on Monday morning and could only practice in the afternoon.
Not only that, but even players involved in training need to maintain social distancing and cannot practice normally. Only the Manchester United youth team and the women's footballers, because they are in a different "bubble" with the first team, have no contact, so they can continue their normal training at Carrington. Therefore, the British "Manchester Evening News" confirmed that Manchester United took the initiative to propose to the Premier League that the match be postponed. The players also expect the match to be postponed.
United noted in an official statement: "The club can confirm that united have decided to close the Carrington Training Centre's first-team activities for 24 hours following a positive PCR test on yesterday's first-team players and coaches to minimise the risk of any further infections. People who test positive are also being quarantined according to the Premier League protocol. Given the cancellation of training and the nuisances to the squad, coupled with the health of the players and staff, the club is discussing with the Premier League whether Tuesday's match against Brentford is safe, including issues such as COVID-19 infection and player preparation. The trip of the players and staff to London will be postponed pending the outcome of the discussions."
However, despite discussions between Manchester United and the Premier League about the safety of the match against Brentford at the community stadium, the latter still did not immediately determine whether the game would continue. United initially had to arrange for the whole team to prepare for a trip to London on Tuesday morning, and if the game goes as planned, the team will face the challenge of competing without any preparation training.
However, the Premier League finally announced in the early hours of Local Time on Tuesday that it agreed to a delay in the match, which meant that Manchester United's first match against the "Little Bee" since 1947 would need to continue to wait.
The Premier League also issued an announcement confirming that among the players and staff of 20 clubs, there were 42 new positive cases of COVID-19 from December 6 to December 12, twice as many as the previous two weeks combined with 7 and 12, setting a new high. At least 5 clubs have confirmed cases, in addition to Manchester United, as well as Aston Villa and Brighton have also been in trouble. But the league's measures are simply to increase the frequency of testing, delay the game when necessary, and do not intend to bring the league to a complete shutdown.
The British "Daily Mail" disclosed that in accordance with the requirements of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in response to the Omicron variant virus, by the end of this month, the Premier League will only have one team, Wolves, which can meet the bottom line standard of the third dose of vaccine for players. According to data released by the Premier League on October 19, 68% of players at that time were vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19. Since the third shot had to be spaced 3 months apart from the second, one-third of the players could only wait until the end of January to receive the injection.
While many clubs have questions, the Premier League insists that emergency responses, such as rigorous testing measures, are enough to keep the league going. They don't want to suspend games before Christmas, as in the same period last year, although 6 Premier League games were postponed but not suspended. The reason why the Premier League is so insistent is, of course, is to make money, because even a short suspension will bring catastrophic results, the broadcaster will ask for a refund, and create a backlog of future matches.