The English Football League has recommended that promotion and relegation should take place in the Championship, League One and League Two, regardless of whether clubs vote, or have voted, to curtail the campaign.
Although this proposed framework has still to be endorsed by the clubs themselves, the EFL’s board has made it plain it regards its draft plan as “integral” to preserving the competition’s “integrity”.
Last week League Two clubs agreed to end the season with immediate effect and their League One counterparts are scheduled to decide next week whether to play on. Meanwhile all Championship clubs, bar Hull City, are keen to restart the second-tier fixture list, with the majority returning to training on Monday for a provisional resumption around 20 June.
In a series of recommendations released on Thursday the EFL said that 51% of clubs in League One or the Championship would need to agree to any curtailment of their campaigns. The final table would then be decided by an unweighted points-per-game system and play-offs, involving no more than four teams, should still take place.
The EFL blueprint challenges the declared preference of League Two clubs that Stevenage be spared relegation to the National League but confirms that Swindon, Crewe and Plymouth appear set for automatic promotion to League One.
“There is a strong desire to remain as faithful as possible to the regulations and ensure consistency in the approach adopted in all divisions,” said the EFL chairman, Rick Parry.
One barrier to continuing the League One season has been the cost of twice-weekly coronavirus testing, mandatory under the EFL’s return-to-play protocols, and Sunderland have asked the Professional Footballers’ Association to help shoulder the £150-per-test cost.
Championship clubs are undergoing initial mandatory tests at their training grounds but have the option of saving about £1,300 a week by asking players to conduct subsequent swab tests at home or enlisting backroom staff to conduct them before training sessions. Under both methods samples would be collected by couriers. Middlesbrough are understood to be one of around eight clubs adopting the self-testing system but two-thirds of the division has chosen to pay a premium for independent testers.
Parry has cautioned that EFL clubs face a collective £200m deficit by the end of September, due primarily to loss of matchday revenue prompted by the need to play behind closed doors.
With considerable uncertainty as to when fans will return and a salary cap beckoning for Leagues One and Two, Sunderland’s co-owner Charlie Methven and the MP Damian Collins, formerly chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee, have produced a blueprint for football’s future. It proposes the Football Association creates a Football Finance Authority (FFA) financially backed by the government which would provide funds needed to keep clubs damaged by the coronavirus pandemic afloat. This funding would not involve loans but the purchase of minority, maximum 49%, shareholdings. The money could not be spent on player recruitment or enhancing infrastructure.
An independent director, selected by a registered supporters’ trust or local government authority, would join the club’s board and either the supporters’ trust or local authority could acquire the shareholding at a discount in the future.
“Without reform of the governance of football finances, any bailout for clubs will be a short-term fix,” Methven and Collins wrote. “Once the pressure is off, the rules – whatever they are – will be bent and challenged by the owners of clubs intent on short-term success, at the cost of medium-term sustainability.”
