Premier league may not start 😫

Watford owners the Pozzo family hit out at Project Restart and insist 'the conditions are not right' for the return of Premier League football after defender Adrian Mariappa and two staff tested positive for coronavirus

• The Premier League want to resume the season behind closed doors next month
• Gianpaolo Pozzo, whose family own Watford, says it is too soon to start playing
• The 78-year-old is concerned about the spread of coronavirus around England
• Watford had three of the six positive Covid-19 tests in the entire Premier League
• Pozzo insists that Serie A need to give squads more time to train before playing 
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

Gianpaolo Pozzo has blasted the Premier League's plans for Project Restart, insisting officials are trying to play games before it is safe to do so.

The 78-year-old Italian, whose family own Watford and Serie A club Udinese, has been left frustrated after seeing the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis in his home country.

Italy has had over 227,000 confirmed cases and more than 32,000 Covid-19 related deaths, and Pozzo believes playing games in England would be dangerous.  

Gianpaolo Pozzo (left), whose family own Watford, has hit out at the Premier League's plans

Three out of six positive coronavirus tests in the Premier League came from Watford this week

'The conditions are not right yet,' Pozzo said. 'The virus is still advancing rapidly there, at least compared to here. They're [the UK] a few [weeks] behind us [Italy].'

The Premier League hope to resume the season behind closed doors in the second half of June, with clubs returning to non-contact group training this week.

However, the return to action has proved particularly difficult at Watford after three of the six positive tests from the entire league were found to have come from the club.