Hull City wait while Yorkshire Championship rivals return to training

Players, coaches and key staff at Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town, Barnsley and Middlesbrough will reconvene at their training grounds to start preparations ahead of a potential return to action on an as yet unspecified date in the summer.

Hull City – who revealed on Sunday that two individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 – have reportedly delayed their own resumption until Thursday at the earliest.

Tigers vice-chairman Ehab Allam voiced his opposition to football’s return in two letters to the English Football League (EFL) last week and stressed that clubs would be left “exposed to entirely unnecessary legal and financial risks” if the season eventual;ly starts again.

Last Tuesday, a leaked letter had revealed that Allam claimed that the Championship campaign should be made void and he sent further correspondence to EFL chairman Rick Parry and fellow second-tier clubs on Friday.

Hull are two points clear of the relegation places but Allam feels that a number of issues such as the possibility of the season being suspended for a second time after a possible restart and the testing of players mean the current campaign should now be called off.

Allam wrote: “Without any guarantee that all remaining fixtures will be played if the season recommences, Championship clubs are, in effect, being asked to agree to a game of pass the parcel in which they can achieve/miss out on promotion or avoid/suffer relegation, if the music were to stop at an indeterminable/arbitrary point in time.

“I continue to strongly believe that Championship clubs are being exposed to entirely unnecessary legal and financial risks (and forced to overlook the health and safety concerns that exist) as a result of the inappropriate haste with which clubs are being encouraged to return to training by the EFL. I also retain serious concerns about the integrity of the competition (which in my opinion is more than simply upholding promotion and relegation at all costs) should some, but not all, of the remaining games of the 2019-20 season be played.”

The vice-chairman further outlined his issues to the EFL with the proposed coronavirus testing protocols.

He continued: “I am extremely concerned that one of the testing options available is for individual players to administer the tests themselves before then providing it to their club.

“This has the potential to fundamentally undermine a testing regime which you have stated is needed to underpin a safe return and in the event that matches are ever played, expose the players and staff of other Championship clubs (who have adopted a more rigorous approach to testing via club medical personnel or third party agencies) to unnecessary and inappropriate risks.

“It would clearly be inappropriate for players to carry out their own doping-control tests and yet the EFL has approved a process which allows players to test themselves for a virus that has serious/life-threatening consequences.”

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you. James Mitchinson, Editor