Premier League mustn't use neutral venues, or they will lose their integrity

After three long months of waiting, English football will return to our screens on June 17 after being struck down by a global pandemic.

Germany managed to successfully bring back the Bundesliga last month behind closed doors, and to the relief of fans across the country, England are following in their footsteps.

There was a huge outcry from fans across the world for the Premier League to be deemed as ‘null and void’ due to the spread of the virus - and not just because they wanted to see Liverpool denied the trophy they’ve craved since the creation of the league in 1992.

The Etihad Stadium may not end up hosting Man City v Sheffield United on July 8

The powers that be have always wanted a return to play to finish the season, and testing of players and staff of Premier League and Championship clubs - plus play-off teams from Leagues One and Two - has been ongoing since the middle of May.

For Premier League clubs, there has been six rounds of testing, which has brought 13 positives results out of 6274 samples, and whilst ideally there wouldn’t be a single case of COVID-19 here, the numbers recorded read very well.

It has dispelled the ‘null and void’ shouts for good, but just when it looked like the Premier League was set to return - albeit with no fans attending – one problem still remains for a select few fixtures.

Whilst it was mooted as a potential plan in initial talks, a proposal to finish the season at 10 neutral grounds across the country was scrapped, and the focus went back to concluding the remaining fixtures as usual, just with zero fans in attendance.

But there were two matches with a venue of ‘TBC’ besides them when the official fixtures were released for the first rounds of games - and they both involved the champions-in-waiting.

Liverpool’s first game since their Champions League loss to Atletico Madrid on March 11 - a match in which 'directly led to additional COVID-19 deaths' - is set to be against their Merseyside neighbours Everton on June 21.

Atletico Madrid's visit to Anfield in March 'caused increase suffering and death' due to COVID-19.

Due to the apparent concerns of the UK football police - headed by South Yorkshire Police’s Mark Roberts - this could have taken place in another English city, but it has been confirmed that Goodison Park will indeed host the game.

The worry is that fans will congregate outside the stadium in a match where Jurgen Klopp’s team could even secure their first ever Premier League title, but Merseyside Police have cleared up any worries by stating they will provide ‘whatever policing is required’ to make sure the game goes ahead as planned.

Liverpool’s home clash with Manchester City on July 2 was the other fixture that did not have a confirmed venue as of earlier today, but that has also been settled, with the game going ahead at Anfield.

The UK football police may still get their way though, as safety measures for three other matches are still under review - Manchester United’s home clash against Sheffield United on June 24, Man City hosting Newcastle on July 8 and Liverpool’s trip to Newcastle on July 26.

The UK Football Police have expressed concerns about a number of matches set to take place behind closed doors.

Lots of fans laughed off initial proposals to stage ALL the remaining games at neutral venues, and the Premier League - or the police for that matter - should not be allowed to single out games like this.

Of course football fans across the country have their part to play in this as well, and once the season recommences, they must be trusted to stay away from stadiums so that games can go ahead without a fuss.

But the closer we get to the start of the season with some games still not having venues finalised, the more silly it looks that such a proposal is actually being considered.

The Premier League’s integrity would be absolutely crushed if specific games are moved to locations which are hundreds of miles away from the home teams' surroundings, and important people should be putting pressure on the powers that be to make sure it’s not allowed to happen.

The neutral grounds situation isn’t just confined to England’s top tier, as last week it was revealed that a Championship encounter between Derby County and Leeds United was mooted to take place at Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium - some 175 miles from where the match is actually taking place.

A report suggested that Derby County v Leeds United could have been played at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium.

That was the supposed plan of the aforementioned SYP’s Roberts, but the man himself has debunked the story, with the match set to go ahead at the iPro Stadium.

Some Premier League games still hang in the balance though, and a decision needs to be made quickly.

For the good of the game, the right choice needs to be made - and that would be for absolutely NO neutral venues to be used in these unprecedented times.