‘It is a mess’ – Antonio Conte blasts PL for ‘strange’ postponements in frustrated rant

Antonio Conte did not hold back in his criticism of the Premier League for their arbitrary guidelines to suspend matches.

Tottenham have been one of the worst-hit with respect to games being called off, with the North Londoners having just played 18 matches so far, four fewer than some of their opponents and five fewer than Chelsea.

After the suspension of the North London Derby, some pundits, like Gary Neville, have suggested the rules initially brought in by the Premier League to help clubs dealing with Covid-19 cases are now being taken advantage of.

Conte labelled the situation a ‘big mess’, pointing out that it was the Premier League’s unwillingness to reschedule their match against Leicester in December that led to the Lilywhites being knocked out of the Europa Conference League.

The Spurs boss told Football.London: “I think that it is a mess now but this is the truth. There is maybe only one team or maybe two who have played all their league games, City and maybe West Ham. The others have played 18. Burnley 17. Then they postponed the game against Watford. It is a big mess for sure.

“It was very strange to put yourself in this situation you understand with this decision. I repeat we have found the Premier League very strict when it happened, the outbreak in our training sessions and they did not want to postpone the game against Leicester.

“The Burnley game was postponed by snow. Then all this happened. Yes, you have to learn to laugh, you have to laugh because they have totally changed the vision.

“We accept and we play here and for this reason, we have to accept every decision, but I think that in every moment you have to show respect for all the teams and players, coaches, for people who work in football.”

“If you remember, we were the first team to have an important outbreak, maybe the only team with so many Covid cases. Maybe 11, 12 [eventually], the whole staff, U23 players.

“Despite this, I have seen a bit of difficulty to accept this and if you remember we only postponed one game for our positive cases and then we were ready to play also in the Conference League and then at Leicester, after only one week I remember.

“It’s a tough period, but at the same time, I think we have to face the situation and if there is important cases of Covid in the teams then it’s right to postpone the game.

“Otherwise, we are the first to want to play and my club, the players, me and my staff because we work to play games, but at the same time I think you have to take the decision to postpone only for one reason, if there are Covid cases, not for injuries, not for international duty.”

Conte dismissed suggestions that the suspensions were down to concerns over player welfare, questioning why the Premier League have not modified their hectic fixture list if they cared about players’ well being.

He said: “I think this is not the first season in England that you are speaking about the welfare of the players, to try to protect the players.

“My question is – in all these years, what has changed? Nothing. For this reason, I tell you that it is stupid to continue to speak about the welfare of the players because you are losing time.

“It’s not only this season but for many, many years. You are talking every time about the welfare of the players but what are we doing for the welfare of the players? Nothing.

“We are implementing [forcing] the games to play, this is the truth, and then I think that it’s stupid to speak about a topic that you don’t want to solve or you can’t solve and for this reason, we lose time. We have to move on and to try to be serious and to face other topics.”

The Italian called for the Premier League to reflect on their postponement decisions at the end of the campaign so that they can correct their mistakes moving forward.

He added: “Honestly, I think at the end of the season it will be the time to reflect on this season and the decisions the Premier League have taken,” he said.

“You can gain a lot of experience from this season – the same as teams do. After the season you need to pause and see what are the positive things that you did and which are the negative things you can improve.

“It would also be the right time for the Premier League to reflect on this season and to try to improve. There is a lot of room for improvement for the teams but also for the Premier League this season.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The Premier League essentially knocked Spurs out of the Conference League by refusing to postpone the Leicester game in December, only for the game to be called off anyway when there were several Covid cases in the Leicester camp.

Given that the same organisation have now been so lenient with other teams’ request to have their games postponed (like Arsenal), one can understand why Conte is fuming. The lack of consistency has been quite appalling.

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