Jordan backs calls to postpone Premier League due to COVID as fifth game called off

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has called for this weekend's games to be called off as well as the midweek Carabao Cup ties, with talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan now adding his voice to calls for a break in action.

Tottenham's clash with Brighton was the first game to be postponed last week, which was followed by Brentford vs Manchester United on Tuesday.

But cases have only grown around the top flight, with Burnley vs Watford postponed just hours before kick off on Wednesday, while both Leicester vs Tottenham and Man United vs Brighton were called off on Thursday - taking the number of matches postponed over the last two weeks to five.

The Championship's fixture list is also being affected - talkSPORT understands Stoke have asked for their trip to Coventry this weekend to be postponed following a number of positive COVID tests results at the club, and Cardiff vs Derby County could also be called off.

Brentford boss Frank has been one of the leading voices calling for a 'circuit breaker' in Premier League action - suggesting the forthcoming league and Carabao Cup fixtures be postponed until after Christmas, to help the Boxing Day games going ahead as planned.

And Jordan agrees.

The former Crystal Palace owner said: "Perhaps taking a set of fixtures out and saying these fixtures that lead up to Boxing Day, which is what Thomas Frank has advocated, might be the sensible decision.

"It would be damage limitation for what could be coming down, which is clearly what we are going to see.

"We are seeing it in society, whatever it is, however we view cases rather than hospitalisations, we are where we are.

"Football is a poster boy for people, and they will lever that and say 'look at what football is doing and look at how football is being allowed to stay open and look at the fact football is being allowed to put 75,000 fans in a stadium'.

"So it needs to look as if it's doing what it should be doing.

"I'm not an advocate of opening football stadiums and playing games just because we want a stable diet of football.

"Football has a certain look, so I would probably say we could probably sit down for seven or eight days, let it flow its course, and then you're going to see it settle, - then play the Boxing Day games.

"If this transmission [Omicron] is at the level that it's at, how can you justify putting 30/40/50,000 people inside a stadium and argue that it's outdoors?

"Well it's not outdoor, because most of the time people are inside concourses or inside hospitality or inside lounges or inside executive boxes.

"26,000 people at [Crystal] Palace last night, I can guarantee you in the executive boxes I know very well and in the lounges, you'd have thousands and thousands and thousands of people indoors.

"So football really needs to watch its step a little."