Football needs to resume but only when it’s safe to do so, asserts Scott Duxbury

With the Bundesliga lined up to be the first league to resume action on May 9th, pending approval from the German government, the Premier League are all set to allow training. It has seen London trio Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham all announce that they are opening their training grounds and will follow safety protocols. That would mean a potential end to the suspension and with the Premier League executives scheduled for a meeting on Friday, things could change.

However, Watford chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury has asserted that a resumption of top flight football in England has been made a lower priority until things become a little safe. Duxbury further added that the pressure on the NHS has become far too severe and reducing that needs to be top priority before even considering resuming action.

“I feel uncomfortable at this stage even talking about football because there are people dying every day, there are stresses on the NHS, and that has to be the priority. Do I want to resume football?” Duxbury told the Guardian.

“Absolutely, and when it’s safe and the government says it’s fine and all the players and support staff that follow football can return, then I’m 100% behind that. But at the moment I feel all efforts have to be on beating the pandemic and supporting the NHS.”

The Hornets are owned by the same family that own Serie A side Udinese and the two sides often share scouting and administrative staff. But with the situation in Italy amongst the worst in the world with the Serie A the first to suspend the league, Duxbury further admitted that football is not important right now. He also added that the world is in a much bigger fight and that needs it’s full attention.

“I have a lot of friends, a lot of colleagues in Italy, some of whom unfortunately have died because of this and I think it does bring home how serious this situation is. I’m not trying to be disrespectful when I say I don’t think football is important at the moment.

“This is the fight that’s important, the support that we’re providing is important. Of course we have to get back to normality, of course football plays a huge part in that, but at the moment the world finds itself in an awful situation, and this is where our focus needs to be,” he added.