Report: No fans at Premier League games for a year?

Following the return of the German Bundesliga amid the coronavirus pandemic over the weekend, English Premier League players were given the go-ahead to resume training in preparations for a campaign restart tentatively scheduled for mid-June.

It appears top-flight English football could be without fans for longer than some first thought.

On Monday, Paul MacInnes of The Guardian reported that supporters may not be welcomed to stadiums for an entire year. Mark Gillett, the league's medical director, offered a grim outlook regarding large gatherings:

“I’ve sat on the DCMS group [directing the return of elite sport] with a very high level of medical input from Public Health England and the chief medical officers department”, he said.
“They’ve made it very clear that the social situation, the public health situation, is not going to change over the next six to 12 months."

As Ken Kosirowski of Wisconsin station WKBT-DT noted earlier this month, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has prepared clubs for the possibility that fans may not be able to attend any games through at least the end of 2020. 

The NBA, NHL, and MLB all remain indefinitely suspended because of the pandemic. 

Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, and Green Bay Packers are hoping at least some spectators will be allowed to attend NFL games whenever the football season begins during the virus outbreak that remains uncontrolled.