Premier League and Football League have to help clubs navigate Covid crisis - Crawley Town boss John Yems

Crawley Town manager John Yems has called on the Premier League and the Football League to help clubs navigate through the recent surge of positive coronavirus cases.
By Matt Pole
Published 17th Dec 2021, 17:03 GMT
Updated 17th Dec 2021, 17:28 GMT
Crawley Town manager John Yems has called on the Premier League and the Football League to help clubs navigate through the recent surge of positive coronavirus cases. Picture by Pete Norton/Getty ImagesCrawley Town manager John Yems has called on the Premier League and the Football League to help clubs navigate through the recent surge of positive coronavirus cases. Picture by Pete Norton/Getty Images
Crawley Town manager John Yems has called on the Premier League and the Football League to help clubs navigate through the recent surge of positive coronavirus cases. Picture by Pete Norton/Getty Images

The Reds' League Two clash with Oldham Athletic has been called off due to positive Covid cases in the Crawley squad.

Reds general manager Tom Allman confirmed that, as of today [Friday, December 17], there have been '12 positive cases with a few more still to come in'.

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At the time of writing, the rise of the Omicron variant has claimed five of this weekend's Premier League games and 19 fixtures in across the Football League.

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has called for the weekend's full round of Premier League fixtures and next week's Carabao Cup matches to be postponed to 'break the chain' on Covid and ensure Boxing Day's fixtures go ahead.

Premier League clubs are set to meet on Monday to discuss the escalating crisis around the coronavirus pandemic. The Football League have yet to make a decision on the matter.

Yems said: "It gives us a bit of time to get the injured boys back and it least we're going into it off the back of a win and a draw.

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"But I do think the Football League and the Premier League have got to help the clubs a little bit, because it is not the clubs' responsibility to close things down.

"There is a lot of mixed messages out there. Tom [Allman] sees it from that side because he's in the office all day.

"But for us lot stuck at the training ground all you want to do is play football.

"Someone has got to take the lead and make the decision. I think the way that some of the players and managers, especially at the higher levels, have been coming out and saying about [stopping until] January, to me it makes so much sense.

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"If you give a start date to start, at least it gives everybody a chance to sort tests out and training.

"It's a big ask for everybody and nobody knows. It's like trying to have a fight in the dark. You don't know what's going on.

"It's only because we have already got things in place, and it's a compliment to everyone who deals with that side of it, that we spotted the cases otherwise we could've gone on and got ourselves in more trouble.