Premier League football's covid tester backed by Rio Ferdinand plans tests for UK companies

The boss of the company supplying the Premier League with its covid-19 testing today said he hoped to roll out the scheme to employers in other sectors as soon as laboratory capacity is available.

Avi Lasarow, whose Prenetics business is backed by former football star Rio Ferdinand as an adviser and shareholder, today confirmed the company had won the football contract.

He told the Evening Standard he was keen to run testing for manufacturers and construction firms first as they were on the government's list of companies whose return to work was critical for the country's economy.

Prenetics has already done private sector work in Hong Kong testing more than 1000 Deliveroo drivers and is currently in talks with airlines in the region.

Lasarow's business runs the secure software that handles the data and organises the logistics and outsourcing of the tests to private laboratories. In the case of the Premier League clubs, the lab is The Doctors Laboratory, a Europe-wide pathology laboratory group which already works with the NHS.

Lasarow cautioned that he would not be able to provide services to the private sector until the government had agreed Prenetics was not using up lab capacity that could be used by the NHS: "We want to do this at the right time when it is not impacting on the government's focus."

He pointed out that most NHS tests were being done by the so-called super-labs such as the new one in Milton Keynes which would eventually free up private labs.

TDL's parent company Sonic Healthcare also runs covid tests for the German Bundesliga footbal league.

Lasarow was the founder of DNA Fit genetics, a health business aimed at sports people and corporate wellness programmes. Ferdinand first became an adviser and shareholder there before Lasarow sold the business to Hong Kong-based Prenetics.