Premier League’s Project Restart is financially driven and we've accepted that, confesses Tyrone Mings
Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings has revealed that he believes the motivation behind the Premier League’s Project Restart is driven by financial reasons rather than sporting integrity. The English top tier are set to resume play on June 17 with the players already back on the training ground.
The Premier League, alongside other top European leagues, has been suspended since mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic but things are slowly changing. It has seen the Bundesliga resume play less than two weeks ago with the La Liga, Premier League, and Serie A all setting restart dates for mid-June. The English top tier confirmed their date as June 17th in a meeting on Thursday with them looking to resume play only under safe conditions.
It has seen the league test for the coronavirus twice a week with the latest tests revealing no positive cases after the first two revealed a grand total of eight. However, there are still concerns from a few players over a restart and Tyrone Mings is amongst the group. The Villa defender admitted that he is concerned that the motives to restart are “possibly 100 per cent financially driven” with players playing again because “they have no choice”.
"The motives are possibly 100 per cent financially driven rather than integrity driven. I am all for playing again because we have no other choice. As players, we were the last people to be consulted about Project Restart and that is because of where we fall in football’s order of priority. That isn’t a problem. We are commodities in the game and we accept that. Project Restart is financially driven," Mings told the Daily Mail.
"I think everybody accepts that. But that’s fine with me because I look at this monster that is Premier League football and the revenue it creates and I didn’t moan about being a part of it when everything was great so I’m not going to moan now when the atmosphere around the game is more hesitant."
Since training has resumed for all twenty Premier League sides only Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante and Watford’s Troy Deeney have opted out of participating with fears over their safety. The other players, staff, and managers have returned to their various training grounds and Mings further admitted that it’s good that they have been given the choice to return to training and not forced. The Villa star also added that players cannot be abused for taking such a decision and they need to be backed by the league.
"We got the option to come back to training and that’s fine because we didn’t have to but if the FA and the EFL and the Government and UEFA and the Premier League all say you are going back to play, it really doesn’t make any difference what the players think because you are going back to play. It is get in or get out. It is important that players are given the choice. It’s a personal thing. If you don’t want to do it, you absolutely don’t have to.
"People have aired their concerns about families’ health and I back those people 100%. That is something people have to take into consideration really carefully. No one should ever be on the end of personal abuse for making a decision based on their families’ needs or health needs,” the former Bournemouth star added.
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