Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has admitted that challenges that many clubs are facing are “insurmountable”. He was hoping that the authorities and the league could somehow work out a way to get back to playing but felt that the current situation may not allow that to happen. But he also cited the example of Germany and hoped that the Premier league could use the blueprint from their German counterparts to start the league again.
Steve Parish said “Well, it’s another part of the journey in trying to get football back and to answer your first question, football is highly unimportant in the context of the public health context, and everything we do, that has to come first. But we are a business at the end of the day, and we support jobs, taxes and the economy. And would be doing it no duty if we didn’t find a way to try and bring the game back. It may prove beyond us. Obviously, we have huge challenges in order to get it back and complete this season, but we are planning to do so. We have the Germany example now and if they are successful, that could provide a blueprint for us and hopefully, we can do it, but we have to see what the situation is at the time. We can see some of the early challenges and they may prove insurmountable, but the concern for us, of course, is that if they prove insurmountable now, then maybe we are in for a very extended period of not being able to play and that has huge ramifications for the game. There are no easy answers. We have to work through it as a collective and I think we will come out with a consensus at the end.”