The Premier League have doubled down on their refusal to allow Manchester City and Chelsea a late start to next season. Both sides are competing in FIFA’s first expanded Club World Cup in the US which will run from 14 June to 13 July. With the new domestic campaign to start on August 16, manager Pep Guardiola revealed last year that City had requested their first two games to be postponed. ‘Thank you so much,’ he added with some sarcasm. ‘It is absolutely not allowed. The Premier League say yes to us? No. Absolutely not.’.

While officials insisted no formal request had been made, Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes – who also revealed semi-automated offsides could be introduced before the end of this season - has now underlined the competition’s position. ‘We're having this imposed upon us, particularly by FIFA,’ he said. ‘So there's an element saying, why would we be adjusting our competition when they've imposed a competition that we don't agree with?.

‘The more significant element, though, is we simply can't,’ Scholes added. ‘The calendar is squeezed as much as it can be at the moment. And we can't afford to delay it until the start of the season.’. Manchester City and Chelsea will not be allowed a late start to the 2025-26 campaign. Both Premier League sides will be competing in FIFA's new expanded Club World Cup. In a briefing with reporters, Scholes claimed that VAR was improving season by season and voiced his backing for under-fire officials. He produced statistics that showed there had only been 13 VAR errors at this stage compared with 20 last season and added that VAR interventions were causing an average delay of 40 seconds per match, down from 66.

Scholes also disclosed that correct on-field decision making had improved slightly to 86 per cent, which rose to 96.4 per cent (from 95,7 per cent last season) post VAR. He also added there had been 70 VAR interventions in 239 games, equating to less than one in three. In-stadium referee VAR announcements, a feature of the EFL Cup, should come into play from next season, while semi-automated offsides could arrive in the very near future.

‘We are making significant progress (on offsides),’ ex-Stoke City exec Scholes added. ‘I'm hopeful that at some point this season, we will be able to introduce semi-automated technology. But I repeat the point I've made a number of times. We are not going to introduce it if we've got any doubts at all with regard to its operation. We believe we're going to be adopting the best system and the most accurate system, without the need for the chip in the ball.’.