The Premier League is to consider changing the rules about match postponements.
Prior to the mid-season break, there was a spate of games being called off. Clubs has been claiming they were unable to fulfil fixtures because they did not have enough available fit players due to Covid-19 outbreaks in their squads.
However, there were suspicions that some were gaming the system, and did not want to play because they did not have their strongest team available.
Twenty-three games have been called off this season due to a combination of Covid-19 cases, international call-ups and injuries. That is opposed to the Bundesliga, which has yet to see a single cancellation this season, despite Germany facing the same challenges from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 as the UK.
Clubs were told in December that matches should still be played provided that they had a goalkeeper and 13 outfield players. However, there is some ambiguity over what constitutes an available player.
Teams have been able to include the injured and those away on international duty with AFCON as unavailable. While many clubs have youth players who can be used to supplement numbers, they have been excluded from the count as well.
The last-high profile game to be called off was the North London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal on 16 January, when the Premier League approved the Gunners’ application for the game to be postponed.
That provoked a furious reaction from Spurs, who accused their rivals of cheating the system, something Arsenal have vehemently denied. They have pointed out that they had been at the wrong end of such decisions. At the start of the season, their request for their match with Brentford to be postponed was turned down, despite them having a number of Covid-19 cases in their squad.
And when their Carabao Cup semi-first leg tie was called off after the Merseyside club reported a number of Covid-19 cases, only for all but one of them to prove to be a “false positive”.