Premier League to restart on June 17

Finally, the announcement we have all been waiting for. The Premier League will restart on June 17, with two crucial midweek fixtures before a full round of matches on the weekend of June 20.

The first games following the coronavirus postponement will be Aston Villa at home to Sheffield United and Manchester City hosting Arsenal. These two early matches are needed to get all 20 teams to 29 matches played.

After those two matches, it gets really interesting.

The remaining 90 fixtures will be scheduled in a packed six-week period, with matches played over seven weekends and two rounds of midweek fixtures, before the league season is completed on the weekend of August 1-2.

Each game will be given a live television slot. The FA Cup Final would then be scheduled for the following Saturday, August 8.

Saturday, June 20 will be the first official round of matches with kick-offs staggered across the weekend — presumably including Manchester United’s postponed match against Tottentham Hotspur.

The scheduling was discussed at Thursday’s meeting of all 20 Premier League clubs and means that clubs have around three weeks of “contact training” to prepare themselves for the season to restart.

Originally a date of June 12th was going to be the re-start date, but protests from players and managers who were worried the restart was too soon, pushed the date to the 20th.

Other than the early matches, a complete schedule has not been released yet.