Season Suspended.

EFL suspend games until April 4. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

All EFL games have been suspended until Friday April 3rd.

More to follow. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— BBC RM Sport (@BBCRMsport) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It's time the Premeir league trickled down some of the vast funds they have to the EFL to help protect the smaller clubs, it seems that paying 200 million on transfers not a problem, helping others seems to be a problem shame on the sport.

wessy wrote:It's time the Premeir league trickled down some of the vast funds they have to the EFL to help protect the smaller clubs, it seems that paying 200 million on transfers not a problem, helping others seems to be a problem shame on the sport.

Completely agree but doubt that will ever happen Wessy.

karlypants wrote:

wessy wrote:It's time the Premeir league trickled down some of the vast funds they have to the EFL to help protect the smaller clubs, it seems that paying 200 million on transfers not a problem, helping others seems to be a problem shame on the sport.

Completely agree but doubt that will ever happen Wessy.

Agree KP tight bastards, one weeks salaries would prop up Oldham etc

A lot of clubs lower down the leagues will struggle now as they rely on gate receipts but i suppose this is the best thing to do for now.

Good, that's one major source of pain out of our lives.

Let’s hope it gets voided and we start again

Have i not said i think you will stay up? didnt think it would be this way though. lol

I suspect the League will wind up calling the current table the final standings in the end. Of course it makes no real difference to us but I suspect a number of clubs at both ends of the table will call foul.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:I suspect the League will wind up calling the current table the final standings in the end.

There's absolutely zero chance of that happening. Half the teams in the Championship would sue, given they currently have a sniff of the Prem.

If the season is cancelled it will be like it never happened, no promotions or relegations, so we start next season as we did this, but with a team in place, I think we'd be a good mid table side given a full pre season and better players.

I can't see that happening Martin , too many teams with a sniff of promotion would not be happy with that and would try and sue the EFL i reckon.

I just saw UEFA are considering postponing Euro2020 until summer 2021 so leagues could play out their remaining fixtures over the summer. I don't know how practical that would be though given how short the gap would be between ending this season and starting the next one.

Norpig wrote:I can't see that happening Martin , too many teams with a sniff of promotion would not be happy with that and would try and sue the EFL i reckon.

I get that, but where is the cut off point? we can't keep suspending indefinitely, as next season needs to be planned for, so the EFL have a huge decision to make, and we know a lot of teams will be outraged, but like I say there has to come a time when they need to cut and run.

Neil Lennon was on today suggesting that the seasons could be ended by awarding every team their 'average points per game' for the remainder of the season's fixtures. So for instance a team averaging 2 points per game with 10 games left would get 20 more points than they have now while a team averaging say 0.5 ppg would get 5 more. I don't think that's going to happen but Martin's right; at some point the leagues will have to call time on the 2019/20 season whether there are unplayed fixtures or not and find some way to fairly determine the final league tables.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Neil Lennon was on today suggesting that the seasons could be ended by awarding every team their 'average points per game' for the remainder of the season's fixtures. So for instance a team averaging 2 points per game with 10 games left would get 20 more points than they have now while a team averaging say 0.5 ppg would get 5 more. I don't think that's going to happen but Martin's right; at some point the leagues will have to call time on the 2019/20 season whether there are unplayed fixtures or not and find some way to fairly determine the final league tables.

There is absolutely no point to Lennon's suggestion as the places would be the same as they are now. No easy solution and seeing as the Chief Medical Officer reckons the epidemic won't peak for another 10 to 14 weeks in England I'm wondering when things will recommence - November?. Whatever the proposed solution, it won't be to everyone's liking.
We might just get lucky seeing as any solution can't really put us in a worse position than we're already in - providing the finances hold up.

I would vote for ending the season right now.  Whatever position the clubs are in right now is it. Makes no difference to us.  Or play the remaining games behind closed doors and get it over with that way.
Of course I would be playing the games as normal if I had my way - you attend at your own risk.

Apparently there is a rule on the books that says the season can be deemed complete if 75% of fixtures have been played. In the Premier League that equates to 28.5 games. In the EFL it's 34.5 games. At this moment all three divisions of the EFL have passed that point while in the PL most teams have played 29 games with six on 28. That gives an average games per team of 28.7 games so in theory the regular season could be called finished now and we could go straight to play offs when football resumes.

However Aston Villa might well call foul on this as they are currently on 28 games and should they win their game in hand would rise from 19th (a relegation place) to 16th (safety). And Bournemouth are currently 18th but only on goal difference so they too might feel it's unfair but I think sooner or later this season will be deemed over (at least the regular season) if only to try and prevent massive fixture congestion or playing all summer. One thing that will not happen imo is the entire season being wiped from the books.

Money talks. No way is anyone going to get relegated or miss out on promotion without legal action.

You could have half the Championship demanding £100m on lost PL revenues.

While cancelling the season would definitely benefit us, I really cannot see it happening.