Ex-Palace owner calls EPL to cancel season to avoid 'corporate manslaughter'

Former Crystal Palace owner has called for the Premier League to void the season and avoid 'corporate manslaughter' if they were to return and players tested positive for coronavirus.

Football is currently suspended due to the global COVID-19 pandemic with no fixed date for matches to resume.

But for Jordan, who owned Palace between 2000 and 2010, he believes the 'best case scenario' is to lose this season and return when the health of all involved is in no doubt due to an available vaccine.

'As much as I don't want to be a doomsday merchant, we have got a disease we don't have a vaccine for, while this isn't a problem in everyone's workplace, everyone isn't spitting and kicking each other as footballers do,' the 52-year-old said on talkSPORT.

'They are going to get infected until we find a vaccine and if something dreadful happens, what happens to sport then? Corporate manslaughter? Is that what we are going to talk about next?'

The Premier League has been contacted by Sportsmail for comment.

The United Kingdom currently has more than 161,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 while there have been 21,678 deaths at the time of writing.

Premier League sides have started to return to training with players entering on a shift-basis with each player separated onto different training pitches to avoid coming into contact with each other.

But while the Premier League is gearing up to make a return, even if the 2019-20 season has to be finished behind-closed-doors, fresh doubts have been raised about the viability after France announced that all football was cancelled until September at the earliest.

Sportsmail exclusively revealed on Monday that as many as 26,000 coronavirus tests - at a cost of up to £4million - will be administered to players and staff to complete the season, with the Premier League footing the bill.

And it is understood top-flight officials have informed clubs they intend to oversee the tests, which will be taken twice a week, essentially taking the procedures out of clubs control.

But Jordan remains sceptical that players will get the sign-off to go head-to-head again while the rest of Europe continues to adapt to the novel coronavirus crisis.

Everything falls secondary to public health, players' health and the health of people who work around the stadium and the health of players' families because of the policing and management of how players are going to interact with COVID-19 in our eco-system,' Jordan continued.

'This is going to be there for another 12 months, until we work out what it does, how it does it and how we can find out some kind of methodology of how we can live with it.

'The challenge is what is going to change? Is COVID-19 going to go away in the next six weeks? Unlikely.'

Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was the first player in the Premier League to test positive for the virus, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta the first manager.

Jordan's admission that he believes the season needs to be cancelled and voided would have ramifications for teams throughout the Football League.

If the season were to be deemed null and void, Liverpool, who are 25 points clear, would not be crowned Premier League champions and Leeds United would not secure promotion to the top flight for the first time since 2003-04.