GARY Neville has criticised the Premier League and its clubs for failing to make the case for a return to action.

The former Manchester United and England defender accused them of being “frightened to death” to publicly back plans to restart the season for fear of being held liable should something go wrong.

Premier League clubs met on Friday to reaffirm their commitment to resuming the campaign.

But Neville feels there has been too much anonymous briefing and not enough public declarations.

Neville wrote on Twitter: “The PL are having a CV nightmare. They keep spouting Health First but then brief constantly “We have to Re-Start”. I’d respect them more if they said

“We accept the increase in Health Risk but it’s one we are willing to take”. They won’t as they are frightened to death!”

When Neville was asked by a Twitter user what would happen if someone died as a result of the restart, he said: “That’s why we haven’t heard one single prominent CEO / Chairman / Owner or Executive open his mouth to back the re-start ! Brief / Brief / Brief ! Scared to death of the liability and blame.”

Before making an exception for Brighton as the “only club willing to take a stand”, Neville added: “It would be good for them to speak at least once. Any of them! Clubs included. They are bottling this virus on comms. Very Happy to tell us when they are delivering food parcels though.”