Official: Premier League votes to return June 17

We have an official date for the return of Premier League football after clubs voted affirmatively on Thursday to restart the season on June 17, with a full round of fixtures to follow that weekend, on June 19 and 20.

Kicking things off that Wednesday will be the match-in-hand fixtures, Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United and Manchester City vs. Arsenal, to bring every team up to 29 matches played. Having every team on the same number of matches played could be important if, for some reason, the season would need to be curtailed in some fashion.

But the plan of record is to play out the 9 remaining matchdays in just 6 weeks — so a couple midweek rounds needed — making the first weekend of August the last weekend of the league season, with the FA Cup final to follow the weekend after (August 8) to officially end the 2019-20 football season.

It’s certainly an ambitious plan, even given the relative success of Project Restart so far. With contact training beginning today, teams have three weeks of preseason training to get into shape and get ready.