Premier League and EFL clubs have chosen to fulfil festive fixtures despite ongoing Covid-19 disruption.
The decision comes despite Premier League players returning a record 90 positive tests last week.
The Premier League’s 20 clubs met on Monday to discuss the fixture list after six weekend games were postponed.
No vote took place and so two rounds of fixtures are in place across five days from 26 December, while the EFL will play games “where it is safe to do so”.
It had been expected that the Premier League’s gameweek 20, starting on 28 December, would be postponed in order to ease the pressure on Premier League squads.
BBC Sport understands one discussion point at the meeting was for each club to play two fixtures over the festive period across three gameweeks, meaning no individual gameweek would have been fully postponed.
Instead, clubs have been advised if they have 13 fit players, plus a goalkeeper, they should fulfil their games.
FA Cup replays in rounds three and four have however been scrapped and talks are ongoing on whether to reduce EFL Cup semi-final ties to one-leg matches.
Shortly after the meeting, the Premier League confirmed there had been 90 new positive cases from 12,345 tests on players and staff between 13 and 19 December. The figure was more than double last week’s 42 cases, which was a record since the pandemic began.
On Monday, Premier League figures showed 77% of players have had two vaccination jabs, a rise from 68% in October.
In all, 84% of players have had at least one vaccination. If staff are included in the analysis the figure rises to 92%.
The Premier League said Monday’s meeting saw “a range of issues discussed” including adapting the Covid-19 postponement process. Saturday’s fixture between Aston Villa and Burnley was called off at two hours’ notice.
In Sunday’s Premier League fixtures, Chelsea named just six substitutes for their draw at Wolves and Liverpool drew at Tottenham without a number of first-team names.
Five of Saturday’s six fixtures were called off. Chelsea tried to get Sunday’s fixture at Wolves postponed and boss Thomas Tuchel said his players were put at “huge risk… not just because of Covid but also physically”.
It is understood Liverpool were among a group of clubs who pushed for the postponement of Gameweek 20.
After Sunday’s draw at Spurs, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said playing on 26 and 28 December was not feasible.
“It’s impossible, we don’t have the players,” Klopp said. “We have to think we will get an extra case or two. We cannot just push it all through. The 26th and 28th, that’s not possible. We would prefer to play but we need help with the fixtures.”
The seven Premier League teams still in the Carabao Cup face ties on 21 and 22 December and will play three Premier League fixtures between then and 2 January.
Wolves club tweeted a photo of captain Conor Coady and head coach Bruno Lage having their booster jabs.
Lage added on Monday: “Everyone in our building is fully vaccinated, which is the right thing to do, especially with the increase in positive cases in the Premier League and wider society.” – BBC.
