Premier League to Resume June 17

The Premier League will resume play on June 17th as first reported by The Telegraph, and confirmed by Sky Sports News. The Premier League then released a statement later in the day detailing their plans in full.

The June 17th midweek matches will kick off the restart of the Premier League season with two matches slated to take place on that day with no fans. Aston Villa will host Sheffield United while Manchester City will host Arsenal. The matches are considered “outstanding” which is why they are the first couple of matches being played. The 2 games being played are games in hand for the teams involved so getting them done early makes it easier for the league to schedule the rest of the season’s matches

These will be followed up by a match on Friday the 19th with the full slate of games signifying the restart kicking off on June 20th.

The plan is to play the remaining 90 fixtures over a six-week period, with matches played over seven weekends with two rounds of midweek fixtures. The goal is to have the season completed the weekend of August 1-2, with the FA Cup Final taking place the following weekend.

According to the Telegraph every single match will be broadcast live assuring that the Premier League gets every bit of their TV money. This was confirmed in the Premier League’s statement as they announced all 92 matches will be broadcast live among the League’s existing broadcast partners: Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC Sport and Amazon Prime.

It has been reported that there will be 4 matches shown live on BBC free of charge. There has been no indication as to which matches will be shown on BBC, but if true it will be the first time the PL has been broadcast on BBC. Such a monumental moment for the league and BBC will surely result in some TV records being broken for the Premier League.

Sky Sports will be showing 64 of the remaining 92 matches with 25 of those being free-to-air.

The Premier League has also confirmed that here will be slightly different kickoff times for the plethora of matches slated to take place.

Weekend matches will be scheduled as follows (all times BST):

Friday - 20:00

Saturday - 12:30, 15:00, 17:30; 20:00

Sunday - 12:00, 14:00, 16:30; 19:00

Monday - 20:00

Midweek matches will be scheduled as follows (all times BST):

Tuesday - 18:00; 20:00

Wednesday - 18:00; 20:00

Thursday - 18:00; 20:00

Newcastle currently sit in 13th place with 35 points, 5 points away from “safety” and 8 points clear of the relegation zone.

The Premier League join the Bundesliga, Serie A and the NWSL as some of the only sporting leagues in the world to officially restart although it appears La Liga is also targeting a June restart.

Updated 28/5/2020 at 6:45PM BST with additional information provided by the Premier League and Sky Sports