Gary Lineker interview: What’s the rush for football to return? Let’s get this season done and take it from there

Gary Lineker has warned against the Premier League and wider football rushing back to get the 2019-20 season finished.

But the former England striker said it was imperative to complete the current season, even if it runs as late as December and causes delays to the next campaign getting under way.

Project Restart is looking closely at a mid-June playing resumption but, with hundreds of people still dying daily from Covid-19, Lineker warned against the urge to resume football.

“What’s the rush?” he asked. “The rush is because August is coming and people want to start the new season on time.

“But there’s a good chance that’ll be interrupted by a second wave of this, so let’s just finish this season whatever. My gut feeling is to finish this, even if it goes to Christmas, and work out what to do after that, because it’s highly likely that there could be a similar problem next season.

“If this virus comes back strongly with a second wave then potentially you’ll get two seasons kiboshed. So, let’s just wait until it’s safe and finish the season. If we finish, we can then re-evaluate the ‘what next’. The only fair way is to finish the season.”

The footballer-turned-broadcaster is all too aware that the knock-on effect of ensuring this season draws to a final and fair conclusion will have an impact on the wider game for the ensuing season.

He readily admits he does not have the answers in a complex situation, but envisages a scenario where 2020/21 looks entirely different on the footballing landscape.

“Next season going through its entirety without interruption is hopeful at best,” he said. “So, maybe you have half a season, then at least that way everyone is at the same starting point, and do they play maybe one game against each other next year?

“Then there’s the whole issue of the Champions League and travelling abroad. I just don’t know. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the person making those big decisions.”

All eyes will be on the Bundesliga in when it resumes, the German league having been given the all-clear to start playing later this month. And Lineker argues no official decision start date should be made on the Premier League until then.

“The Germans are usually pretty smart, so let’s monitor that before making a judgment,” he added.

The idea of no resumption of this season’s Premier League was this week likened to a doomsday scenario by Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish.

Taking up that point, Lineker said: “While it’s secondary to people losing their lives — and there are tragically thousands of them — there is the economic catastrophe, and that’s in all walks of life, whether football, hospitality or business.

“And I do worry for the clubs. Most clubs live on the edge because of the demand and pressure to be better and buy players. But there needs to be some kind of correction and rethink, because we’ll enter a period where clubs will have less money and I doubt we’ll see the transfer fees we’ve seen.

“There has to be some kind of correction or rethink to the whole thought process. In all walks of life, we can have a rethink and I hope there’s all sorts of positives off the back of it, not just in football, but how we treat our planet.”

Testing for the virus undeniably holds the key to any sort of footballing resumption in the coming weeks. As a former player, Lineker knows players will be chomping at the bit to return, but is aware that there will be concerns, too.

“Some will be really fearful,” he said, warning that a collective refusal to play was “not impossible”. He added: “I think players will have to feel safe. If they’re guaranteed safety, they’ll be desperate to return.

“And to ensure that, testing will have to be relentless. But what we can’t do is have masses of tests stopping anyone, say, in the NHS getting tested. There’s so many ifs and buts to all this and, if football does return, it will be fragile.”

At the start of the crisis, Lineker believes players were made occasional scapegoats, publicly called upon to hand over large chunks of their salaries to help the likes of the NHS when an initiative, led by Liverpool captain

Jordan Henderson, was already under way to do just that. And 59-year-old Lineker, who for his part has donated three months of his salary to the British Red Cross, said: “It’s odd, as it’s always footballers people have a pop at. You’ve got bankers or musicians earning big sums of money, but no one ever talks about this.

“Is it because they’re working-class lads doing so well above their station? The first people the Government had a go at were footballers, but they’d stepped up anyway. Footballers have actually come out of this with a great deal of credit.”