The huge financial crisis facing football in general could be catastrophic of a club suddenly stripped of Premier League income through relegation, but Clarke argued that the effect if five clubs were relegated in just 12 months time would be just as categoric.

Instead he insisted that Friday’s meeting needed to be about finding solutions, not problems, to the issue of getting games back underway.

That has been the focus of the Premier League board since the lockdown was first decided, and Project Restart is geared towards games being played at a small number of neutral venues.

West Ham and Manchester City are two grounds to be mentioned due to their isolation from public areas, although the Premier League are keen to explore using more provincial venues where emergency services are less stretched dealing with the fight against coronavirus.