Premier League not close to the formula to finish season, claims Aston Villa chief

The coronavirus death toll in the UK has crossed the 30,000 mark in recent weeks taking it above Spain and Italy as the worst-affected country in Europe. However, a possible Premier League return has been in the works as top-flight officials put forth the idea of completing the season at neutral venues. However, certain Premier League clubs are not entirely happy with this solution, one of them being newly promoted Aston Villa.

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Premier League not close to a formula to finish the 2019-20 season, claims Aston Villa chief

While speaking on talkSPORT, Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow spoke against the Premier League Project Restart proposal. The Villa executive was quoted as saying, "We have six home games to play and giving up that advantage is a massive decision for someone running Aston Villa. Neutral grounds is one suggestion and personally I am against it. We are a club which prides itself on our home form and two-thirds of our wins have come at home. My duty is to my club. At the bottom end of the table it is rather different. None of us are playing in Europe or generating millions of pounds on a match-day.”

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Aston Villa are currently 19th spot in the Premier League, having picked up just 25 points from 28 games. Villa, along with the likes of Norwich City, Bournemouth, Brighton, Watford and West Ham United are embroiled in a closely fought relegation battle. Christian Purslow reiterated, "It is a much smaller revenue base and the risk of relegation is a £200 million catastrophe for any club that mathematically could go down. So when you say to a club at the bottom, 'we want you to agree to a bunch of rule changes that may make it more likely you may get relegated'. They are thinking: 'my goodness are we going to agree to something which helps gets us relegated and loses us £200 million'. Every club has to protect its own financial position and the positions are wildly different from top to bottom.”

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