Expect postponement of upcoming Brighton vs Tottenham match

Tottenham has a compelling argument, after eight players and five staff tested positive for Covid-19, for the Premier League to postpone Sunday’s match against Brighton. 

This evening’s decisive European Conference League match against Rennes has been postponed. Rennes are apparently appealing the ruling. And who could blame them for wanting to play a severely wounded animal ill-equipped to fight back. Well, Tottenham supporters could.

If UEFA, who usually requires a team to have fewer than 13 players or no registered goalkeeper available, can make an exception based on an extreme circumstance, surely the Premier League will following suit.

It would be irresponsible and set a dangerous precedent to allow Sunday’s fixture to go ahead. An outbreak of this severity, since supporters were allowed back into stadiums, is unprecedented.

The Premier League, like UEFA, has set guidelines for these particular occurrences:

"“The 2021-22 handbook states permission will not be granted to postpone a league match if a club has 14 or more players on its squad list available.However, postponing league games is taken on a case-by-case basis and the decision would be made by the Premier League board if a request is received from a club.”"

Surely having 13 positive cases is enough for the Premier League to make an exception and postpone the match. It would be a travesty for both Tottenham and the league for this match to go ahead. Even Brighton, if not on a football level than a humanitarian one, will see the merit in rescheduling the match.

Spurs are in desperate need of some compassion from the Premier League’s decision makers. Antonio Conte is imploring the Premier League to make the right decision.

There’s also the medical, scientific side to consider. Transmission from Tottenham to Brighton’s camp isn’t impossible, even with all of current precautions in place. A Tottenham player, still in the gestation period, could test negative before the match and positive the day after. It’s not unheard of, and the Premier League can ill-afford, no matter how improbable, an inter-squad outbreak.

For all of those reasons, expect the Premier League to postpone Tottenham’s match at Brighton on Sunday. It’s the right decision in the midst of an already incredibly challenging time.