London (AFP)

The Premier League is back! The announcement should thrill the hearts of all football fans around the world, but the coronavirus has been there and it’s a very different league, resuming Wednesday, after three months of forced shutdown.

It is Aston Villa and Sheffield United who will have the honor of rolling the ball again on English lawns, Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. GMT. An event that will be followed in all latitudes and in all time zones, as the Premier League is the world championship par excellence.

"Villa-Sheffield United, it was a Championship poster (D2) last season (...) but now it will be broadcast live worldwide", said Chris Wilder, visitors coach .

Then there will be a Manchester City-Arsenal (19:15 GMT) in the evening, capital in the title race in case of misstep by the "Citizens", before a full day of championship this weekend, which could crown Liverpool Sunday after its derby against Everton, provided that a favorable combination of circumstances occurs.

But after 100 days of forced rest - since March 9 and a rout of the Villans (4-0) in Leicester -, the supporters risk the cold shower.

If Liverpool still has to grab a few points to be champion for the first time in 30 years, if the race for Europe and the struggle for maintenance are completely undecided, the sportsman may take time to come back to the fore.

- Regular screenings -

The spectacle of a Premier League without its packed and vibrant stands risks being a shock and the effect of these muffled atmospheres on the spectacle is also unknown.

The German championship, which resumed a month ago, Spanish and Italian football, which also outstripped the English elite, offered a glimpse of the strange atmosphere of the ball behind closed doors.

The English teams, after having bitterly discussed the modalities of returning to training and then to the game, seem in any case to have adopted all these new features.

Regular screenings, establishment of a health questionnaire and taking of temperature on arrival at the stadium, with a "clinical passport" - a barcode which makes it possible to ensure that the player has been tested negative during the five at least previous days - nothing is left to chance to prevent the "Project Restart" about to end up in a fishtail.

The clubs will also travel in restricted delegations: each team will be entitled to 37 badges giving access to the field, the tunnel and the technical areas.

And like everywhere else, gestures as banal for a footballer as shaking the hand of his opponent or spitting will be prohibited.

"There will be quite a few differences, but we are delighted to replay and show people during this difficult period," said Chris Wilder.

Masks will not, however, be compulsory on the bench where 9 replacements will take place instead of 7, 5 of which may come into play, an experiment adopted in accordance with Fifa's suggestions.

- Financial pressure -

What is likely to disturb the players, however, is the frantic pace of matches concocted by a Premier League acting as much under financial pressure as a taste for fairness in sport.

To limit the discount that will be granted to broadcasters due to the delay in the season, the clubs have agreed to cram the remaining 92 league games over just over six weeks.

The Premier League also did not hesitate to blow up the sacrosanct "3 PM Blackout" which, since the 1960s, has prohibited the broadcasting of live Saturday matches at 3 p.m. local time in the United Kingdom.

More than a third (33) of the matches will be broadcast on channels without subscription, including the BBC for the first time in 28 years, but Sky and BT Sport customers will be able to see all the matches.

Another intrusion of "real life" in the resumption of the championship, the clubs unanimously decided Friday that the names of the players in the back of the shirts would be replaced by the slogan "Black lives Matter" of the fight against racist violence and police in the United States, a movement that has become global.

As for the players, they will be able to kneel during or before the match to pay tribute to George Floyd, the African-American father killed by a police officer at the end of May in Minneapolis, in the United States.

© 2020 AFP