Football fans will be able to watch almost all of the remaining 200 matches in the Premier League and the Championship live, as scheduling officials and broadcast partners aim to televise as many fixtures as possible commencing on June 12.

The Premier League hierarchy face many challenges before football can become a reality again, but talks will be held on Monday between shareholders of each club, where permission will be sought for football to resume next month at between eight and ten neutral venues.

There is also the challenge of convincing the players that it is safe to return to training and playing amid continuing concerns about the health risks associated with COVID -19.

However, if the Premier League’s Project Restart plan remains on track and football resumes on June 12, the intention is to stage between three and four Premier League and Championship games every day at different kick-off times until the end of July.

The proposal will be put to clubs in both the Premier League and the Championship at their respective shareholder meetings next week.

And, according to The Times, the scheduling plan already has government support because it will help keep people indoors and, perhaps more importantly, dissuade some fans from trying to gather at neutral venues being used by their teams.

The government is certainly keen for football to return, with the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, telling reporters on Tuesday that the resumption of a Premier League season will ‘lift the spirits of the nation’.

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While the Premier League has 92 games left to play, the Championship has 108. And it is likely that, in order to protect the integrity of the competition, the last day of both campaigns will still see games kicking off at the same time.

News of the imminent return of the Bundesliga in Germany has undoubtedly raised the spirits of football fans worldwide, but the status of the virus within the UK is at a far more advanced stage than in Germany.

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The UK now has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in Europe and the second highest in the world.

The latest figures show a total of 32,275 deaths, surpassing Italy’s total of 29,079.

Meanwhile, Germany have had 6,993 deaths, a far inferior number to that of the UK, therefore football has been given the green light to resume by chancellor Angela Merkel.