Kieran Maguire has called for Tottenham to use ‘politics’ to change the Premier League’s rules for postponing games due to COVID.
Tottenham were recently involved in a row over the league’s grounds for calling games off, after Arsenal filed for the postponement of the North London derby last weekend.
Spurs released a statement saying they were ‘extremely surprised’ at the decision while also calling for greater ‘clarity and consistency’ when enforcing the rules.
The postponement adds to the club’s backlog of fixtures, with Antonio Conte’s side holding as many as four games in hand over some sides around them in the race for the top four.
The Premier League has since considered altering the criteria for matches being postponed after claims clubs were manipulating the rules, with new guidance penned to be in place as early as February 8 (BBC Sport).
However, Maguire believes Spurs should look to form a coalition with the league’s other top sides in order to force a quicker and more enforced change.
Maguire told Football Insider: “The system from the outside looks like it can be manipulated. It relies on the good will and honesty of clubs, and there is no evidence that they aren’t implementing that.
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“But at the same time, there does seem to be a lack of transparency.
“The fact that matches are getting called off so late is infuriating for all stakeholders in the game, fans, teams, broadcasters.
“It makes sense to have some clarity. Perhaps we have reached a stage in the pandemic where we can move to a more nuanced system.
“But getting deals through is never easy because people go into huddles and factions.
“There is a lot of horse-trading taking place, people saying, ‘If you vote for this, we’ll help you out by voting for this’. It’s politics rather than health which will determine any changes.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The Premier League set itself up when it comes to this, unfortunately. They set the rules and the criteria for postponements, and there was ultimately a loophole that they failed to consider would be exploited. And clubs are meeting the criteria, so there really isn’t much other parties could do to stop the postponements.
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