London: Aston Villa footballer Tyrone Mings has said players were the 'last people to be consulted' over the English Premier League's restart plans, which he feels is 'financially driven'.
"The motives are possibly 100 per cent financially driven rather than integrity driven," he told a website. "Project Restart is financially driven. I think everybody accepts that.
"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 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."
The Premier League season, which was abruptly halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, is all set to resume on June 17 with Aston Villa taking on Sheffield United and Manchester City locking horns with Arsenal in the big game.
All four teams have a game in hand and these two fixtures were still to be played when the league stopped.
A full fixture list would be played on the weekend of June 19-21.
Lat week, Premier League teams had given their approval to begin contact training as England move a step forward in resuming its top-tier football league.
Liverpool lead the Premier League table by 25 points with nine games remaining as they chase their first top-flight title in 30 years.
