10.30pm Arsenal news LIVE: Ozil could cancel contract, Mari to seal £10m permanent transfer, Xhaka breaks lockdown – The Sun

ARSENAL continue to await the return of the Premier League.

But the Gunners are pressing ahead with their transfer plans and are reportedly set to make Pablo Mari's loan a permanent transfer for £10m.

Follow all the latest updates from North London below…

  • SNACK TO THE FUTURE

    IT will be football — but not as we’ve ever known it before, writes Mark Irwin.

    Premier League chiefs have promised they will only be able to agree a restart when they get the green light from the Government.

    The sheer scale of the demands demonstrate just how football post-coronavirus will be, as Sky Sports famously claimed at the launch of the Premier League in 1992, “a whole new ball game”.

    While English football might make a few tweaks, the requirements to put health and safety first suggests Prem bosses may opt for essentially a cut and paste job from the Bundesliga to compile the rules and regulations over here.

    Under the requirements, clubs are advised they should use “several buses” to transport players to the ground, with players and staff separated.

    Ideally, clubs are asked to re-arrange the changing area so that the starting teams, goalkeepers and substitutes all get stripped in different rooms. In the dressing rooms, players will have to bring their own food — which must not be shared.

    Any players using fitness equipment must wear gloves and face-masks with medical staff also donning PPE. Treatment tables will be moved further apart, with machinery such as ultrasound equipment thoroughly cleaned between uses.

    All doors should be left “as open as possible” to prevent door handles — where virus spores can live for hours — being touched.

  • NICE TOUCH

    Arsenal joined the rest of the country in paying tribute to NHS workers earlier this evening.

  • BIG MES-TAKE

    Mesut Ozil could have grounds to cancel his Arsenal contract if they impose a pay cut without his consent.

    As reported by the Daily Star, article 14 of Fifa’s ’Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players’ states: “A contract may be terminated by either party without consequences of any kind (either payment of compensation or imposition of sporting sanctions) where there is just cause.

    “Any abusive conduct of a party aiming at forcing the counter-party to terminate or change the terms of the contract shall entitle the counter-party (a player or a club) to terminate the contract with just cause.”

    Mesut Ozil's Erkut Sogut has already warned Arsenal that the legality of any pay cut on his client may be questionable.

    He told The Athletic: “It is not enough for a club to present a proposal to one member of the first team squad and then asked them to go to the rest of the squad and get their consent to do it.

    “That is not how individual contract negotiations should take place.

    “A club may even ask a first team manager to negotiate with players and this may influence some, particularly younger players or those on the fringe who fear there might be personal repercussions for him if he does not agree.

    “In those circumstances it could be questionable that any consent from the players would be legally binding anyway as some players are not in a position to give true consent if they are under pressure to do so.”

  • SOL NOT IN IT

    Arsenal great Sol Campbell is on the brink of quitting as Southend boss, writes Charlie Wyett.

    PFA chiefs have attacked the club for furloughing some players during the coronavirus crisis.

    Southend are 16 points off League One safety and have twice been charged by the EFL for not paying players on time this season.

    Now, there has been another row between the club and players.

    And Campbell is understood to have had enough of the nightmare, with the first team asked to defer 50 per cent of wages.

    Former England and Arsenal defender Campbell, 45, who has sympathy for the players, only joined the Shrimpers last October and has been hit badly by financial constraints.

    Now owner Ron Martin has furloughed six of his highest-paid players — along with 59 backroom staff.

  • GOING ALL THE WAY

    Premier League chiefs are ready to defy Uefa calls to bring in a play-off system to determine European slots, writes Martin Lipton.

    Uefa’s ruling executive committee urged all national leagues to consider the solution if there is no way of completing the full calendar by the first weekend in August.

    Europe’s governing body wants all leagues, especially the Big Five of the Prem, la Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, to be completed if possible.

    If not, though, Uefa said: “It would be preferable that suspended domestic competitions would restart with a different format in a manner which would still facilitate clubs to qualify on sporting merit.”

    That means pressure on the Prem to introduce a play-off system if the coronavirus restrictions mean the season can only be partially completed.

    But Prem bosses, who are still desperate to finish the season, believe that it would be infeasible to deliver a play-off format which would be fair.

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