The Premier League resumes on Wednesday evening with Aston Villa v Sheffield United, and Chief Executive Richard Masters echoed the views of millions of fans around the world when he expressed his anticipation at its return after a 100-day gap.
"I'm feeling very excited," Masters said. "It is the culmination of a lot of hard work, a lot of consultation with clubs, with players, with managers, with other organisations and particularly with government."
'Real prize is to complete season'
Despite the promise of football's return in England, Masters says the hard work is not yet complete and the League and clubs cannot relax to ensure the campaign remains on track to finish at the end of July.
"The real prize is completing the season," he said. "Obviously, we have to be careful we have to observe 'the new normal', the new rules and regulations that have been put in place.
"We are confident the clubs, the players and the staff involved will do that.
"We can also take confidence from the testing results - we have had 16 positive results out of over 8,500 COVID-19 tests - that the new measures we have put in place are providing a safe place to work."
Early doubts
Masters admits that early on during the pandemic he had worries over when the return to action would take place, but through broad consultation with stakeholders and Government his confidence grew.
"There was doubt when the whole country went into lockdown, when all industry sectors were wondering when some semblance of normality could be returned to," he said.
"But as soon as we spoke to Government, as soon as we'd spoken to our clubs and put in place a skeleton plan, since then we've been trying to fill in the gaps, take it step by step.
"When we were able to reassure everyone that going back to stage one training was safe, that was the moment it felt we're on the right track."
