Premier League football may return with a couple of rule changes if the plan to complete the season over the summer goes ahead.

The Mirror write that the Premier League will meet on Friday to discuss player welfare, among other things. There are a couple of items on the agenda relating to potential rule changes if football returns for a mega-event in June and July.

The first relates to substitutions. Premier League clubs want to increase the number-allowed-per-game to five to guard against potential injuries from the packed fixture list. This makes sense, though only emphasises what a bad idea it is to cram games in.

The second is to do with VAR. As the system requires more people to come into work and into close contact with each other, it’s possible they’ll look to scrap it completely for the remainder of the season.

These are just the latest changes proving the Premier League doesn’t care about the ‘integrity’ of the competition. Games may return behind closed doors in neutral venues with only a few days rest between them, as well as no VAR and a different substitution format.

From what I can see, the only benefit is that the clubs all get to keep their broadcasting money. That’s certainly nothing to sniff at, given the size of the bill, but it’s putting finances over fairness.

Previously, the argument was that one club or another deserved their chance to prove they could avoid relegation, make it into Europe, or similar. That disappears if we complete the season in such an artificial format.