Premier League Covid meeting 'a waste of time'

Several English Premier League teams have been affected by the latest novel coronavirus surge caused by the Omicron variant. Club managers sat down with league officials on Thursday to discuss the situation, but Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has claimed that the meeting was a complete waste of time.

The Spurs have been badly hit by the surge, with two league games already postponed plus a forfeited Europa Conference League match. Conte is shocked that the Premier League has decided to continue even though three boxing day games need to be postponed due to a rising number of infections within participating clubs.

That means a total of 13 matches have now been disrupted in the wake of a whopping 90 positive test results within the league in the past week. "It was [like talking to] a wall and for this reason I also prefer to not go into it," said Conte after the meeting, as quoted by BBC Sport.

Meanwhile, the Premier League itself has refused to comment on the meeting and what transpired. Some of the postponed matches include Liverpool vs. Leeds, Wolves vs. Watford and Burnley vs. Everton. In light of the situation, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned that teams may be forced to "strike."

For now, it is believed that the league wants games to continue as long as there are 13 available players plus a keeper. Conte and Norwich boss Dean Smith both said that they entered a meeting but the decisions appear to have already been made even prior to the discussion. "They [the Premier League] decided the season would continue as was and we have got to fulfil fixtures now, so we have to cope as best we can," said Smith.

Patrick Vieira added that he feels confused about the outcome of the meeting. "When the meeting finished you just try to understand what the outcome of the meeting was and what the meeting was for. I still didn't understand what the conclusion was of the meeting," he claimed.

Players have also started to speak up about how their welfare is being disregarded as they are forced to play amid such a massive number of infections.