Liverpool should be awarded Premier League title: Houllier

Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier believes his old club should be awarded the Premier League title even if the season is not completed because of the COVID-19 crisis.

Liverpool are 25 points clear at the top with nine games left to play in the Premier League, which has been on hold since March 9 as the novel coronavirus spread across the globe.

According to Houllier, who led Liverpool to FA Cup and UEFA Cup glory in 2001 during his six-year spell at Anfield, Juergen Klopp’s team would be deserved champions.

Asked if they should be awarded their first top-flight title since 1990, the former France coach told TalkSport: “Yeah. That’s what they did in France. They gave it to Paris St Germain. They had a 12-point lead and I think Liverpool needed just two games to win the title.

“If there was a difference of maybe two or three points then you could argue it takes some chances away from teams behind but 25 points there is no way they wouldn’t be champions. They deserve it.”

Houllier, now an adviser to Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas, added that the Premier League should follow the government’s lead on whether to resume.

Meanwhile, the Premier League could face years of legal challenges if this season is not completed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the chairman of Crystal Palace warned Sunday.

Steve parish offered public support for the league’s “Project Restart” plans after relegation-threatened Brighton and West Ham expressed concerns about teams being forced to play their remaining games in neutral stadiums.

The league is working with the government to find a safe way for players to resume group training and play games by June at the earliest.

But the French and Dutch league seasons have already been halted by their governments amid ongoing concerns about sporting fixtures spreading COVID-19 infections. While Paris Saint-Germain was crowned French champion last week despite Ligue 1 ending prematurely, Ajax will not be awarded the Dutch title.

“I want to complete the competition for reasons of sporting integrity,” parish said in a column published Sunday on the Palace website.

“I want to crown Liverpool champions and give every other club a fair crack at the best league position they can achieve. I certainly don’t want to have difficult conversations about curtailing, voiding and points per game.

“The ramifications of each are complex and could involve legal challenges that run on for months, if not years. But, yes, it is partly about the money. And we should all care about the money.”

parish highlighted the “many secondary industries football enriches,” with the Premier League fearing losses of more than 1 billion pounds from an incomplete campaign as broadcasting commitments are not met.

“Nobody wins if the Premier League receives less money,” parish said.

“Football is one of the most efficient tax-generating industries in Britain: we pay the players a lot but 50 per cent goes straight back into the public purse. Overall we pay about 3.3 billion pounds in tax every year and it is the Premier League that largely funds the whole football pyramid.”

The national lockdown remains in place through Thursday in Britain where more than 28,000 people have died in around two months in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for the new coronavirus.

parish’s explanation of “Project Restart” came as the Premier League faced heavy criticism from one of the main pundits for the broadcaster that provides the league’s single biggest revenue stream.

While the leagues in England, Italy and Spain will not start until at least June, the German top flight is hoping to resume this month.

But the Bundesliga’s plans were unsettled by three positive tests for coronavirus last week at Cologne, reportedly including two players.

Cologne has insisted that there is no need for the rest of the squad and coaching staff to go into quarantine.

“The prerequisite for this is, of course, that now that we have started testing, we continue to test consistently, thus ensuring that only those who have tested negatively are part of training,” team doctor Paul Klein said.

Cologne said Sunday that players will only resume training after two consecutive negative COVID-19 tests.