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‘Football cannot be an exception’: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola suggests the Premier League should be STOPPED when new Government lockdown begins on Thursday – despite being given the green light to continue
- Boris Johnson announced a second national lockdown will begin on Thursday
- Premier League football and other elite sports will be allowed to continue
- They can do so due to the testing regimes in place for professional sportspeople
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is not convinced the Premier League should be continuing after the UK enters its second lockdown on Thursday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the restrictions on Saturday with all non-essential services to close from Thursday for at least four weeks.
Elite level sport will be allowed to continue with games still being played behind closed doors.
Pep Guardiola is not convinced the Premier League should be continuing during lockdown
The Premier League was put on hold for three months when the country entered the first lockdown earlier this year and Guardiola admits he couldn’t complain if the same were to happen again
He said: ‘It’s difficult. I know the prime minister is taking the decision because the situation is getting worse. It happened in Spain, Germany and France. Everywhere.
‘So the virus is still there. Maybe people say it is stronger. I think the world of football cannot be an exception in what is happening in society.
Elite level sport will be allowed to continue with games still being played behind closed doors
‘So if we have to play, we will play. But we don’t want to be different from the rest of society when they have to close restaurants or close whatever.
‘It’s a position in which I am not involved. I want to be safe. I want to keep well for myself, for my family, my friends, for all England, all of the UK. But honestly I don’t know.’
Guardiola urged the public to take the second wave of Covid-19 seriously – and do as asked and stay inside their homes.
‘It’s not a joke. It’s serious,’ he added. ‘If he says stay at home, you have to stay at home. If he says don’t do this, we don’t do it.
‘Because it’s not fair for half of the population doing what we have to do and the prime minister says this, and the rest of the people do whatever they want.
‘So we have to be conscious – the reality is tough, it’s difficult. If we have to stop, we are going to stop.
‘If we have to play, because they decide it’s good for society or for I don’t know, just be alert, be careful, take maximum consciousness of the dangers of the situation in which we are living.’
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