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Brighton Kick Against Use Of Neutral Venues To Complete Premier League Season

Brighton Kick Against Use Of Neutral Venues To Complete Premier League Season

Brighton and Hove Albion will kick against any plans to restart the Premier League at selected neutral venues.

At a video conference on Friday, members of the top flight were told that one of the feasible ways to complete the remaining 92 games of the season would be to play at neutral grounds.

The Premier League has been on suspension since March because of the Coronavirus pandemic but clubs have agreed to restart the season when it is safe to do so.

Brighton were hovering around the relegation zone when the season was paused, with Graham Potter’s men still having nine games to play.

Five of Brighton’s remaining games are home matches against the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, but despite the likelihood of games being staged without fans in attendance, the Seagulls are bent on enjoying the advantages playing at the AMEX stadium come with as they battle to beat the drop.

"We do of course understand that in the very difficult circumstances we are facing that every option must be considered – but that should only be when safe to do so for all concerned and, if and when we reach that point, we are not in favour of playing our remaining matches at neutral venues," Brighton’s Chief Executive, Paul Barber, wrote in a statement on the club’s website.

"Clearly, we must all be prepared to accept some compromises. We fully appreciate why playing behind closed doors is very likely to be a necessary compromise to play our remaining games while continuing to fully support the government's efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus."

"But at this critical point in the season, playing matches in neutral venues has, in our view, potential to have a material effect on the integrity of the competition."

"Five of our nine remaining matches [are] due to be played at the Amex - all five matches are very difficult but four are against some of the biggest clubs in European football," Barber added.

"The disadvantages of us not playing the league's top teams in our home stadium and in familiar surroundings, even with 27,000 Albion fans very unlikely to be present at the Amex, are very obvious.

"Clearly, we must accept there may also be some benefit from playing our remaining four away matches at neutral venues but the fixture list simply isn't equally balanced at this stage of the season, and we didn't play our first 29 matches of the season in this way. So, in our opinion, one thing doesn't cancel out the other."

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