Premier League clubs set to fight £340m TV rebate as Project Restart talks continue

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Premier League clubs were reconvening for a second conference call in 24 hours on Thursday morning, with a costly potential television rebate top of the agenda.

Thursday’s meeting comes after clubs unanimously agreed a return to contact training on Wednesday, with Project Restart’s ‘Phase Two’ sessions set to begin across Thursday and Friday.

Domestic and international broadcasters are demanding a rebate of roughly £340million if the season is completed behind closed doors and clubs were expected to contest the figure and clash over individual shares, with the ‘Big Six’, who are on TV more often, potentially facing bigger bills.

The figure is roughly half the £762m that will be due if the 92 remaining fixtures cannot be completed, but there is optimism that the balance could be offset by a number of creative measures for screening matches.

Clubs were also being briefed on provisional dates to restart and finish the campaign, with the Premier League’s initial target of June 12 now widely considered unrealistic. Managers are demanding three to four weeks of contact training to prepare their squads, leaving June 19/20 or 26/27 on the table.

A later restart would leave clubs needing to play three midweek fixtures rather than two. A definitive vote of clubs is not expected until next week.

The start date for next season will also be discussed, with Premier League chief executive Richard Masters having confirmed that it could begin in either late August or early September, while neutral stadia remain on the table, despite Masters admitting that all 20 clubs would prefer to play home and away.

A contingency plan if the season is curtailed by another coronavirus outbreak is also on the agenda.

Clubs have been boosted by the third round of centralised testing on Monday and Tuesday, which last night yielded four positives across three different clubs from 1,008 tests. It took the total number of positives tests to 12 from more than 2,700 conducted so far.

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