Mings: '100% financially driven' restart treats players as 'commodities'

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Aston Villa star Tyrone Mings says the Premier League's "100% financially driven" Project Restart plan treats players as commodities.

"The motives are possibly 100% financially driven rather than integrity driven," Mings told the Daily Mail's Oliver Holt.

The England defender added, "I am all for playing again because we have no other choice. As players, we were the last people to be consulted about Project Restart and that is because of where we fall in football's order of priority.

"That isn't a problem. We are commodities in the game and we accept that."

The Premier League confirmed earlier in the week that June 17 is set as a provisional restart date following a three-month hiatus due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A fourth round of tests on players and staff revealed no new positive results. In total, 12 people have tested positive after 3,882 checks across the league.

"We got the option to come back to training and that's fine because we didn't have to, but if the FA and the EFL and the government and UEFA and the Premier League all say you are going back to play, it really doesn't make any difference what the players think because you are going back to play. It is get in or get out," Mings confessed.

"It is important that players are given the choice. It's a personal thing. If you don't want to do it, you absolutely don't have to. People have aired their concerns about families' health and I back those people."

Newcastle full-back Danny Rose and Watford captain Troy Deeney are among the players who've expressed disapproval or concern about the Premier League's restart. Rose said, "I don't give a f--- about the nation's morale. People's lives are at risk." Meanwhile, Deeney cited data that shows black people are more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people in England and Wales.