After Coronavirus - What next for league football? (poll)

[valefan16]

EFL to agree wage deferrals?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....-footballs-biggest-pay-deferral-deal-far.html

L1 and 2 clubs have agreed it although Vale have decided against deferring our wages for the next few months at least.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Whilst the fluffy dream of clubs producing their own players the fact is it is only for those who ar3 happy to stay a cyclical club.

Do well in the cycle when their youth team produce a couple of decent players, back to square one when the many other seasons when they produce fuck all.

If there are 4 leagues remaining after this is finished there might be a realignment where such clubs prosper but it will, again, only be temporary.

But every single one of us are always going to be in the cycle, every club in this country apart from Manchester City are selling clubs. Even Manchester United and Liverpool are selling clubs when Real and Barcelona come calling. United couldn't even keep Cristiano Ronaldo at their peak! Every player has a price. At best in the modern day, you get a season or two in the Championship like Burton and Yeovil followed by the decline or you continuously tread water like Gillingham do in the division above and Walsall and Oldham before them. The days of Wimbledon's, Blackpool's and Swansea's going from fourth tier to top flight on limited resources are over.

It's not necessarily as abrupt as that unless your club is mismanaged either. Under Davis we went from promotion with a squad containing 2 future PL players and a solid future Championship player. Unfortunately, given he was a shit manager, he neglected our youth system which is why we were very much in the shit until he was sacked. Yet if it wasn't for the philosophy, we'd have been non league and more than likely bust in the 80s. The fact we sold to survive allowed us to reinvest, to further ourselves and to attain established Championship status. Even though we're in League Two now, we still have excellent training facilities and a modernised stadium that were paid for by that transfer income that helped us in the long run.

Now the money in the game has increased so that wasn't possible unless we broke the bank financially for a club of our size, but there are a fair few examples of clubs who have put trust in young players be it through the Academy model or through signing non league players and selling them on. Without an Academy, would Exeter still be a non league club? Without trusting in non league talent, would Peterborough still be a stagnant League Two side? Without investing in cost-efficient lower league and foreign players to eventually sell on, would Brentford have a prayer in the Championship? It also allows for squad continuity rather than clubs ripping up complete squads every two years, which seems to happen at places like Oldham and Walsall all too often.

Said it before, but there's a certain irony behind the NL being really, really strict with clubs in financial difficulty but not adopting something along the lines of SCMP FFP, yet the EFL have, what we're told, are strict SCMP FFP (they do embargo clubs to be fair) and fanny about with clubs if they get into difficulty.

If Bolton or Bury were in the NL, they'd have been dealt with much quicker.

Agree with this 100%. My old man was a Northwich Vics fan and they were (sometimes rightly and sometimes unfortunately) strictly punished for their non league misdemeanours to a point where being below the glue leagues whilst playing in Winsford is their foreseeable future. Yet the EFL have pussyfooted for years with terribly run clubs. And the biggest kick in the teeth is seeing the once financially beleagured (Bury, Rotherham, Bournemouth) attempt to overspend again in a bid to dash up the leagues. It's why I lacked sympathy for Bury as a club (the fans I sympathise with of course they don't make the decisions) because they kept repeating the same mistakes of unsustainability because the league lacked a deterrent and let them do it again and again.

Yet Fleetwood, Crawley and Salford could spend what they wanted in bids to reach the promised land. Especially Crawley who were very close to going bust a couple of years before. It's ridiculous and will certainly need addressing else the same old problems will begin again. It's why the likes of Torquay, Aldershot and Hartlepool have badly suffered in the last decade because they were relying on FL income just to keep their place as the non league bankrolled teams forced them to overspend.

I'm not sure on that. It works ok in the NL below because there needs to be that flexibility due to the hybrid of FT and PT.

Our final season in NL was the first they got rid of the transfer window and it all seemed a bit chaotic at times. The turnover of players seemed very big and felt very scattergun from most clubs. I always think outside the transfer window keeps things settled down.

I think it makes it more difficult if players can be bought/sold/signed the whole season.

I always imagined the transfer window in non league was never a thing unless you were Wrexham and Newport? (FAW professional rules overrule Non League rules). But I do remember the system pre transfer window very well. It enabled Man United to sign Diego Forlan mid-season, whilst Leeds once spunked £6 million on Coventry's Darren Huckerby because he scored a hat-trick against them the previous week. I can see why people disagree with this, but I believe it gives the selling club a greater advantage. They can hold out for a higher price, they can sell at anytime to alleviate a loss of income and, whilst it may be to the immediate detriment of their playing squads, the financial benefits at this level would outweigh the cons of keeping the restrained "buyers market" system we currently have. Dario was a massive opponent of the transfer window being implemented (and even we once lost our top scorer Rob Edwards going for promotion to the second tier in the 90s with weeks of the season remaining) because of this reason. My idea would never be implemented as it relies on FIFA approval, but I genuinely do think it would benefit us lower league clubs, precisely why it'll never ever be implemented.

Agree totally r.e. EPPP (the U24 rule isn't clubs 'demanding' compensation, it's money they're entitled to, just in a bit of a grey area with regards to how much).

The EPPP was pushed through because the PL threatened to pull funding if it wasn't. I always cite Jack Hobbs who Liverpool signed from us back in 2005. We ended up with a deal worth £750k plus a friendly where we kept all gate receipts but under EPPP we'd have got something silly like £60k. The deal we got kept the youth system going for years and enabled us to make improvements to it as well at the time.

Clubs should be able to negotiate their own deals, not be hamstrung by set fees that are, bizarrely, in favour of the clubs with the most money.

Correct. And the same old clubs that disregard youth and care only about short termism far outweighed the long term project clubs just so they could get that supposed 20 goal striker who only bags 5 for the season on £4000 a week to finish 16th in League One. EPPP has brought us to our knees and we're very lucky we've been taken over just before this crisis ensued. We lost two promising graduates, Daniel Trickett-Smith and George Nunn for a combined £600,000. Had EPPP not been in the place, we could've named our price and deterred clubs from signing. DTS unsurprisingly never made the grade at Liverpool and the jury is out on Nunn at Chelsea. We're forced to spend ridiculous sums to keep the Cat 2 status we're heavily reliant on and that impacts on our first team budget.

I was saying this on our forum today. There's going to be a good opportunity for well run clubs providing they're able to guide themselves through this. Income will drop for everyone, but those cuts should be less severe amongst the well run ones and players should become available for them that once weren't. It might also be that the gap between the leagues, both financially and quality, shorten for a few seasons.

The vast majority of us bar the non league lads will have been affected by ITV Digital back in 2002. It was the first year they implemented a steep gulf between clubs TV incomes too. Division One (as we were at the time) got £3 million per club, D2 got £750,000 per club and D3 £500,000 per club. We were very lucky we budgeted for a potential relegation, got money from a money spinning pair of cup ties vs Everton and only reinvested the money we got for Mark Rivers from Norwich into signing Dave Brammer. We were relegated that year. And the loss of TV income for next year was a lot more than £2.25 million, which almost instantly offset any profits we thought we'd make. To stem the losses further, we had to release every single one of our out of contract players bar the first year pros. And even in the year that we probably had record revenues into the club and all that subsequent cost-cutting, we still lost £800,000, which wasn't as much as the multi million losses that were happening at club all over the country. Luckily, the lack of transfer market helped us keep our squad together and one club record season later, we were back in the Championship. But ITV Digital didn't see a single club die. It sure did ruin a few long term prospects and caused steep declines at other clubs our size. But we all got out of it in the end.

 

[valefan16]

The youth issue is difficult, Crewe have had great success over many years with it and fair play generally get them into the first team quickly.

Vale have had more success recently after years of neglect with the likes of Gibbons, Smith (who will likely be in the 2nd tier next season) but the main successes are players we couldn’t name and there lies the problem...

We had four kids that we sold for big money in the past 18 months to the likes of Man City! Couldn’t name them because they never got into the first team but we sold them for big money... they may never be seen again or may break through at these big clubs but would surely have been better staying at the Vale... however firstly money offered was too good to turn down and the pulling power is towards the giants.

Unless that is better controlled most teams will struggle to hold their talent in the bottom tiers.

 

[Indian Dan]

Same with us. We’ve flogged half a dozen youth players over the past couple of years - for well over £1m. Jayden Bogle at Derby being the one who has made it - and we’re still waiting for our 20% sell on when he leaves.

It’s a fine line for clubs like ours between selling potential or missing out completely if it becomes apparent these young players aren’t up to much if they don’t progress if staying with us.

Some fans of some clubs are quite happy to accept that their club will forever bounce about the bottom leagues - and fair enough.

Others still think - rightly or wrongly - that they have the potential to sustain Championship football with the faint chance of the PL. Preston are a good example. Beat us in the PO Final5 years ago and have gone to become a top end Championship club. There are plenty of L1 and a few L2 clubs who could achieve likewise.

Football is, if nothing else, about dreams.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Same with us. We’ve flogged half a dozen youth players over the past couple of years - for well over £1m. Jayden Bogle at Derby being the one who has made it - and we’re still waiting for our 20% sell on when he leaves.

It’s a fine line for clubs like ours between selling potential or missing out completely if it becomes apparent these young players aren’t up to much if they don’t progress if staying with us.

Some fans of some clubs are quite happy to accept that their club will forever bounce about the bottom leagues - and fair enough.

Others still think - rightly or wrongly - that they have the potential to sustain Championship football with the faint chance of the PL. Preston are a good example. Beat us in the PO Final5 years ago and have gone to become a top end Championship club. There are plenty of L1 and a few L2 clubs who could achieve likewise.

Football is, if nothing else, about dreams.

If you said in the 2000s what my expectations for Crewe were, it would've been what you just said, sustaining Championship football. But the times have changed. Ourselves, Vale, Stockport, Tranmere and Walsall were all similar sized clubs competing in it in the 90s and 00s. But then came the rise of the shiny new stadium and lower league benefactor brigade which catapulted your Hull's, Swansea's, Reading's, Fulham's, Wigan's and Bournemouth's up the leagues. If you have neither, you end up declining just from standing still, but is it really worth going into debt to compete with these teams or to build the facilities only to alienate your fans like Darlington did in a vain effort to compete with these teams?

I agree football should be about dreams. And it was until Sky came in. Any club could go up and down the leagues. But then the money has corrupted those dreams beyond recognition and many clubs have got into trouble chasing those dreams, even the ones who made it to the top! Preston have spent over 80% of their history in the top two divisions. No club in our league can match that pedigree. And yet, they'd struggle to be up in the top half of the Championship without being significantly bankrolled externally by Trevor Hemmings.

Without significant external investment, I can't see a single club in this league lasting long at that level. For a start, none of the traditional football league teams at this level look out of place in this division to the extent where a Coventry, a Portsmouth or a Sunderland down here would raise eyebrows. Bradford are probably the best club geared for the Championship based off gates and potential but I genuinely reckon in the pre-Corona climate at best without a sugar daddy they'd be a yo-yo alongside a similar club in Barnsley and a bankrolled Rotherham. Maybe the subsequent changes to football may change that? Who knows. I hope it does because we can all dream then. But assuming the climate was the same as before, unless we get a sugar daddy, we've all got next to no chance of achieving those dreams organically. And that's the harsh reality of the situation.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

The youth issue is difficult, Crewe have had great success over many years with it and fair play generally get them into the first team quickly.

Vale have had more success recently after years of neglect with the likes of Gibbons, Smith (who will likely be in the 2nd tier next season) but the main successes are players we couldn’t name and there lies the problem...

We had four kids that we sold for big money in the past 18 months to the likes of Man City! Couldn’t name them because they never got into the first team but we sold them for big money... they may never be seen again or may break through at these big clubs but would surely have been better staying at the Vale... however firstly money offered was too good to turn down and the pulling power is towards the giants.

Unless that is better controlled most teams will struggle to hold their talent in the bottom tiers.

If the EFL owners all had a spine they'd be going straight to the Premier League saying if we need to curb the impact of the coronavirus crisis, then EPPP must go. But too many Chairmen are happy to take the solidarity money (which will almost certainly decrease when the new PL TV contract comes in in 2022-23) and take a pittance for players. Before EPPP, Wycombe could charge £1.5 million for Jordon Ibe who hadn't signed a pro-deal. Theoretically, you lot could've got up to four times what you eventually got for those kids before they even made the first team. But the likelihood is that all four would've had a chance to impress with you as PL teams would've thought twice about the costs involved. And that's how football should be. We all want to see local lads play for our sides. We shouldn't be ripped off by stockpilers, we should demand what they're worth and if they say no, then they get that platform to perform.

Of course, the players might not be good enough, but they've got more of a chance playing regular EFL football than dossing on a Monday afternoon playing training ground football. They might have a richer bank balance in the short term and might live the pro-baller lifestyle, but where does that go after the four year contract is up, no full-time teams approach them and they spend the rest of their careers dossing on the Alsager Town bench thinking what might've been?

 

[BlackHaddock]

Codalmighty diary from yesterday. http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=7527

 

[TimeyWimey]

6th June restarting if circumstances allow it.

I've not kept up with football side of things; I don't think the EFL have officially given this date but even so, who is throwing these random dates around? I think there's zero chance of football re-commencing by then and I'm not sure why a bunch of business men think they can predict the path of the pandemic so well. It's not just football, cycling is even worse for it. Setting new dates for races for no reason other than wishful thinking, hoping they don't lose their sponsorship.

The EFL/PL/FA seriously need to give up trying to find a way to re-start until de-escalation on a national (more important) scale begins. Draw up plans for different time frames, absolutely, but considering football (/entertainment) will be last in line to get the green light to resume, there'll be loads of time and warning to put things in place.

 

[shoddycollins]

The youth issue is difficult, Crewe have had great success over many years with it and fair play generally get them into the first team quickly.

Vale have had more success recently after years of neglect with the likes of Gibbons, Smith (who will likely be in the 2nd tier next season) but the main successes are players we couldn’t name and there lies the problem...

We had four kids that we sold for big money in the past 18 months to the likes of Man City! Couldn’t name them because they never got into the first team but we sold them for big money... they may never be seen again or may break through at these big clubs but would surely have been better staying at the Vale... however firstly money offered was too good to turn down and the pulling power is towards the giants.

Unless that is better controlled most teams will struggle to hold their talent in the bottom tiers.

Crewe seem to be keeping their kids too beyond the point where in most clubs they'd have been hovered up by an academy from the top two divisions for about £150K (if you're lucky) so I think there's a lot more to it than just producing talented youngsters / giving them a chance in the first team. Presumably Crewe's traning facilities which they didn't just build overnight and reputation keeps them wanting to stay at the club. Crewe have been doing this for nigh-on 40 years so it's not easy to replicate.

Perry Ng, one of the biggest young talents at this level, if he'd come through the academy at any other club in this division would probably have been signed by Blackburn at age 18 for 50K and currently still be working his way throught the youth ranks with the occasional loan to somewhere like Chorley.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Crewe seem to be keeping their kids too beyond the point where in most clubs they'd have been hovered up by an academy from the top two divisions for about £150K (if you're lucky) so I think there's a lot more to it than just producing talented youngsters / giving them a chance in the first team. Presumably Crewe's traning facilities which they didn't just build overnight and reputation keeps them wanting to stay at the club. Crewe have been doing this for nigh-on 40 years so it's not easy to replicate.

Perry Ng, one of the biggest young talents at this level, if he'd come through the academy at any other club in this division would probably have been signed by Blackburn at age 18 for 50K and currently still be working his way throught the youth ranks with the occasional loan to somewhere like Chorley.

Being Category 2 really helps us (and I think Colchester too if they still are) because we can command greater compensation compared to the Category 3s in this division. Our training facilities are a good enticement for players as well. 30 years ago we were training on a school field about a mile from the ground. Now we train in a facility 5 miles away with an indoor 3G pitch, several full size pitches and a hydropool. What also helps us is our location too. We've had a lot of young players from the North West cities, Stoke, North Wales and the Midlands play for us from Primary School age to the first team. It may be tougher for a Carlisle or a Plymouth to replicate due to being outposts with a lesser population within an hour of the club. But I've seen both clubs try to bring local lads through over the years, even if they don't make the grade. Some clubs just can't be arsed even considering that route at all.

I don't know if it's just me, but when I grew up watching football in the early 2000s in the Granada Soccernight days, clubs seemed to have more of a local feel to them. We still have that, but at places like Preston, Burnley, Tranmere, the team being built predominantly with local lads has gone as soon as money has seeped into the game.

As for the hoovering up of young talent, it's been going on for years, ever since the days of the tragic Wayne Harrison in the late 80s. You're most probably right though, he'd probably end up selling muscle supplements whilst playing for Marine on the side once Blackburn released him!

 

[dedwardp]

Yes, we're still Category Two and I think, like Trinidad says, our training facilities go some way to helping attract players who are released from the London academies in their mid-teens. We have generally held on to players too, with quite a few going on to make well over 100 appearances for our first team over recent seasons (Szmodics, Lapslie, Wright, Kent, Vincent-Young, Gilbey etc) meaning we've also had some consistency in our squad year on year.

Another way it helps is that someone like Szmodics probably would have left a year earlier if he hadn't have been Colchester-born and with the club for years etc, so we probably get to keep hold of them for a little longer than otherwise.

 

[shoddycollins]

Being Category 2 really helps us (and I think Colchester too if they still are) because we can command greater compensation compared to the Category 3s in this division. Our training facilities are a good enticement for players as well. 30 years ago we were training on a school field about a mile from the ground. Now we train in a facility 5 miles away with an indoor 3G pitch, several full size pitches and a hydropool. What also helps us is our location too. We've had a lot of young players from the North West cities, Stoke, North Wales and the Midlands play for us from Primary School age to the first team. It may be tougher for a Carlisle or a Plymouth to replicate due to being outposts with a lesser population within an hour of the club. But I've seen both clubs try to bring local lads through over the years, even if they don't make the grade. Some clubs just can't be arsed even considering that route at all.

I don't know if it's just me, but when I grew up watching football in the early 2000s in the Granada Soccernight days, clubs seemed to have more of a local feel to them. We still have that, but at places like Preston, Burnley, Tranmere, the team being built predominantly with local lads has gone as soon as money has seeped into the game.

As for the hoovering up of young talent, it's been going on for years, ever since the days of the tragic Wayne Harrison in the late 80s. You're most probably right though, he'd probably end up selling muscle supplements whilst playing for Marine on the side once Blackburn released him!

Can't really blame a player at this level for jumping at the opportunity to sign for a bigger club. If they stick with us into their mid-twenties, and then don't make it either because of ability or injury then they've no choice but to fall back on a trade. The money they earned at this level i that short time, won't allow them much leeway to consider their options, and will probably be needed to pay for training. Richard Prokas, who famously almost ended Patrick Vieira's career in an FA Cup game works as a roofer, Jimmy Glass was a taxi driver for many years. Even successful players at this level aren't going to be set for long after their career ends Chris Lumsdon got lucky and managed to get a job doing training for a construction company while also commentating for BBCRC, Matty Glennon is a hairdresser.

Joining that big club might open the door for a shot at the big time, at the cost of languishing without playing any senior football at all if you don't make it, but whatever happens you'll be earning enough money that when it does end, you have a bit of time you can use productively before you need to start earning again. You can go to university, whereas a player released as a youngster from a League Two club is unlikely to have the money to go to uni.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Can't really blame a player at this level for jumping at the opportunity to sign for a bigger club. If they stick with us into their mid-twenties, and then don't make it either because of ability or injury then they've no choice but to fall back on a trade. The money they earned at this level i that short time, won't allow them much leeway to consider their options, and will probably be needed to pay for training. Richard Prokas, who famously almost ended Patrick Vieira's career in an FA Cup game works as a roofer, Jimmy Glass was a taxi driver for many years. Even successful players at this level aren't going to be set for long after their career ends Chris Lumsdon got lucky and managed to get a job doing training for a construction company while also commentating for BBCRC, Matty Glennon is a hairdresser.

Joining that big club might open the door for a shot at the big time, at the cost of languishing without playing any senior football at all if you don't make it, but whatever happens you'll be earning enough money that when it does end, you have a bit of time you can use productively before you need to start earning again. You can go to university, whereas a player released as a youngster from a League Two club is unlikely to have the money to go to uni.

I agree that you can't no. But when you allow for the lifestyle too, the outgoings are going to be a lot more too at a young age. And if you're reckless with your money and don't make the grade and no one snaps you up at a lower full-time level, you'll be looking for another line of work before you know it.

One of the times Jim Gannon was sacked by Stockport, he ended up working in Arnold Clark in Stretford the following week with my ex-housemate! One of my heroes as a kid Rodney Jack, our club record signing, ended up working in Iceland. Shaun Smith is a fireman and Robbie Hulse who was earning five figures a week for Sheffield United in the Prem is now a hospital physio in Dudley.

Also never had Glennon down as a hairdresser. Thought he'd be a fisherman he was that used to picking stuff out of a net...

 

[chipmunx]

Also never had Glennon down as a hairdresser. Thought he'd be a fisherman he was that used to picking stuff out of a net...

The wouldn't have been a fisherman - he wouldn't have caught anything....

 

[Indian Dan]

Whenever and however this season is finished, will it be a decision made by the EFL or a proposal from them for the club’s to vote on?

 

[chipmunx]

Whenever and however this season is finished, will it be a decision made by the EFL or a proposal from them for the club’s to vote on?

 

[shoddycollins]

Whenever and however this season is finished, will it be a decision made by the EFL or a proposal from them for the club’s to vote on?

Not sure, though at the moment it seems to be a bit of a consensus that we'll complete this season as a priority.

 

[TimeyWimey]

It will be decided by the Premier League (who will force the hand in a EFL vote). They will no doubt insist on their season being completed, probably as a "event" with many TV companies and fans being milked of £millions, which will have a domino effect down the leagues as the Premier League insist on relegation/promotions and it all being done in their timeframe.

 

[TimeyWimey]

One of the times Jim Gannon was sacked by Stockport, he ended up working in Arnold Clark in Stretford the following week with my ex-housemate! One of my heroes as a kid Rodney Jack, our club record signing, ended up working in Iceland. Shaun Smith is a fireman and Robbie Hulse who was earning five figures a week for Sheffield United in the Prem is now a hospital physio in Dudley.

"Shaun Smith is a fireman now" refashioned from "...from the halfway line" was a great chant heard outside Wembley before the play-offs.

Is Mark Rivers still a chauffeur?

 

[Indian Dan]

It will be decided by the Premier League (who will force the hand in a EFL vote). They will no doubt insist on their season being completed, probably as a "event" with many TV companies and fans being milked of £millions, which will have a domino effect down the leagues as the Premier League insist on relegation/promotions and it all being done in their timeframe.

PL are demanding the league is finalised by 30 June - before 0layer contracts run out.

 

[valefan16]

PL are demanding the league is finalised by 30 June - before 0layer contracts run out.

That would be impossible for the EFL as they say they need 56 days or just under 2 months so we’d need to start in about 3 weeks to achieve that!

 

[chipmunx]

That would be impossible for the EFL as they say they need 56 days or just under 2 months so we’d need to start in about 3 weeks to achieve that!

maybe they'll just play enough games so Stevenage mathematically can't stay up...

 

[shoddycollins]

That would be impossible for the EFL as they say they need 56 days or just under 2 months so we’d need to start in about 3 weeks to achieve that!

Doesn't sound very feasible for the Premier League either.

Same as the owners of big businesses and world leaders, their priorities are to act as if none of this is happening and they won't change their mind until they have no option.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

"Shaun Smith is a fireman now" refashioned from "...from the halfway line" was a great chant heard outside Wembley before the play-offs.

Is Mark Rivers still a chauffeur?

He is indeed. Think he has something to do with customising cars as well in his spare time. There was an article about him in Carlisle's local paper a few years back I believe about his new job after football.

 

[TimeyWimey]

PL are demanding the league is finalised by 30 June - before 0layer contracts run out.

Fanciful if true. Belgium, for example, have cancelled all sporting events up to August 31st. This will be the norm for Europe imo.

The cynic in me would think that this rushing to get the season finished due to contracts isn’t down to fairness. More a case of not wanting to accept the alternative; the automatic extension of contracts to “the end of the season” and having to pay out for it. Whilst their players sit at home.

 

[valefan16]

Sounds like EFL clubs are starting to consider pushing for the season to be cancelled with the belief that fans won’t be allowed until 2021 and a few clubs potentially a week away from going under according to the news this evening.

 

[valefan16]

https://www.skysports.com/football/...s-days-away-from-going-bust-amid-wage-dispute

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

And if we have to resolve the season, we can't just reward failure but punish those who have been successful. And I know I'm saying that as a fan of a club currently top of the league.

If forced to complete the season, then scrap relegation as much as the likes of Bolton, Southend and Stevenage absolutely deserve it after their pitiful seasons. Give Liverpool the title they're clearly not going to blow, put City, Leicester and Chelsea into the CL, United, Wolves and Sheffield United into the EL, promote Leeds and West Brom to the PL, Coventry and Rotherham to the Championship, us, Swindon and Plymouth to League One and Barrow to League Two. 6 teams in League One and 2 teams in League Two will be the biggest losers of this as they're within striking distance of an automatic place. But you can't not reward those at the top whilst saving those with dire seasons. And if you can't finish a season, then sadly you can't have playoffs, so they'd have to be scrapped. It'd also make League Two a 22 team league for one season. Then restructure as appropriate back to 20/24/24/24 the following season.

There's no perfect way of doing this, but a void season only rewards those at the bottom, it needs to have some reward to those who have worked hard to be where they are all season. And the EFL needs to revert to 92 clubs with the Bury fiasco still fresh in the mind. So it's likely Barrow will become league members next season anyway regardless of what happens.

I know someone will say about the National League only having 23 teams next season, I reckon that's where the highest profile casualties will be throughout this crisis, so it'd be good fortune if they had 23 fit and able clubs next season anyway. With next to no funding and a fair few owners bankrolling clubs, they won't want to be spunking their load on players sitting at home, so it's inevitable that some will pull the plug.

 

[valefan16]

You can’t really reward teams that haven’t achieved it properly though as those who just miss out such as Cheltenham and Exeter in our leagues case may well have rightfully earned promotion (the form Cheltenham were in very likely)

You with finish or start again, I’d of course rather finish it as Vale had a decent chance of making the play offs but the issue is 13-14 teams realistically are not going up or down so for them risking players and playing behind closed doors would not be worthwhile and that’s the problem as they would likely vote against completion in the main you’d assume.

 

[Luke Imp]

That would be impossible for the EFL as they say they need 56 days or just under 2 months so we’d need to start in about 3 weeks to achieve that!

True, but for most it'll be over in about 40 because the 56 includes all the PO's as far as I'm aware, which will take a couple of weeks. In theory it's feasible as it stands, albeit unlikely.

Once the feasibility of completing before 30th June is gone for the vast majority, it creates another scenario. It then goes from loss of gate receipts etc whilst paying players during their contracts to then behind closed doors paying out of contract players over and above what they're entitled to, and even if you could have fans in grounds, the gate receipts from games need to be filling the hole left from lack of games at the minute, not covering another financial outlay of extending out of contract deals on a weekly/ monthly basis. Completing the season beyond 30th June further impacts clubs finances, which I don't think many can afford.