Players should be given yellow cards if they spit during matches when football resumes because they risk spreading coronavirus, a Fifa council member said on Monday.

Momentum is building in England for football's return, as the government continues talks with the Premier League and several clubs, including West Ham, Arsenal and Brighton, resume training.

But medical experts, including Michel D’Hooghe, Fifa’s Medical Committee chairman, have warned that serious health concerns must be addressed before it can return safely and that spitting on the pitch, now an accepted part of the game, must be banned.

“This is a common practice in football and it is not very hygienic,” D’Hooge told The Telegraph. “So when we start football again I think we should have to avoid that at maximum. The question is whether that will be possible. Perhaps they can give a yellow card. “It is unhygienic and a good way to spread the virus. This is one of the reasons why we have to be very careful before we start again. I am not pessimistic but I am rather sceptical at the moment.”

Scientists say that saliva could stay on the playing surface for hours, and that coronavirus could be passed on by players who may not be showing signs of the illness.

Dr Ian Brierley, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, said: “If the person is infected but asymptomatic, or infected and symptomatic, the virus is present in the throat, and can be ejected into the environment by spitting.