Southampton: Leeds/Derby game initially due to be played at St Mary’s

Surprising initial plans to play an upcoming Championship fixture between Leeds United and Derby County in Southampton have been rejected.

A report from Telegraph Sport on Thursday stated that St Mary’s was the ground where the fixture could potentially be played, with safety concerns surrounding the game if it was played at Derby’s Pride Park stadium.

However, a statement from the Derbyshire constabulary – via Leeds Live – has confirmed that these reports have been dismissed and that there is no issue with the fixture being played in Derby.

With so many things still to be sorted by the governing bodies of football before the season restarts, this is one of the most bizarre stories to emerge so far.

The use of neutral venues for games is still a real possibility for most teams and will be a reality for clubs like Liverpool given what they are playing for and the potential for crowds of people to gather.

Most important of all is to limit any chance of people gathering outside the stadiums with the current Coronavirus pandemic ongoing.

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However, staging Leeds vs Derby at St Mary’s would surely have caused more complications.

Switching to the South Coast would seen Leeds’ travel time near to the four hour mark and also would have seen Derby with nearly three hours of travel that they would have otherwise not had.

Venues are still to be confirmed for Saints’ return to action in two weeks’ time.

Dates, kick-off times and TV picks have been confirmed for meetings with Norwich, Arsenal and Watford, but it remains to be seen whether they will be played at Carrow Road, St Mary’s and Vicarage Road respectively as originally planned.

Plans beyond are still yet to be confirmed and will likely come towards the end of this month, but six more fixtures versus Manchester United, Bournemouth, Manchester City, Everton, Sheffield United and Brighton make up the rest of Saints’ 2019/20 schedule.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side currently sit in 14th place in the Premier League table and have accumulated 34 points so far, meaning that work still needs to be done to confirms the club’s top-flight status for 2020/21.