How to complete the season

[Daviddidcotexile]

If you just promote the top 3 and have no relegation you land up with a league at the bottom with 3 less clubs and conversely a league at the top with 3 too many. So you must promote and relegate across the leagues or just abandon the season and start again once you can. The biggest challenge is for the supporters to still be alive to watch the games. Somebody will not agree but hey when has a decision been universally accepted. We might miss promotion but so do Swindon....so not all bad !!

 

[christenedinjericho]

I will be amazed if this virus is ever eradicated completely so LR will probably be waiting a hell of a long time before watching a game if he/she wants it completely cleared up before coming back.

I do however believe there will be some type of vaccination available in the near future for a strain of this particular virus but as the virus is complex with differing symptoms for a great many people complete eradication is probably not one of them.

Influenza still kills 500,000 people yearly around the globe and millions have the flu jab and still get other strains so a bit like Barbados yellow has sort of stated there probably will never really be a right or wrong time for life to return to any sort of normality but somewhere somehow tentative first steps will have to be taken and we will all have to accept that we cannot all just sit behind a perspex wall everywhere we go. As an example I know Ebola is prodiminately an African bug but this virus still kills 90% of people it infects and the cure hasn't to my knowledge been found along with SARS, SARS-cov-2, Dengue and a tidy host of others. And in reading up on some of the above already known viruses you could almost become totally housebound and forgiving in scaring the living daylights out of yourself-such is the devastation that these already known viruses have already caused and will continue to do so today and in the future.

I absolutely hate being in this situation like many others but will have to rely on the WHO and the UK government to keep us properly updated and give us the real time information on when we can or cannot restart our lives. I am livid that our frontline staff in hospitals, care establishments and key workers have been starved of PPE as everyone knew months before that this virus was winging it's way to Europe and these shores but heed was obviously never taken and now everyone is up in arms over it. So it is now up to this current government to stop the constant mole-ling out of whistleblowers and act more responsibly by asking and engaging more and more with top health and scientific researchers and let them actually decide on when we can poke our feet and noses out properly without each and everyone of us pointing the finger. This virus is here unfortunately to stay but hopefully the strain will weaken with time.

It must be said that it is a completely worrying time for everyone concerned and I myself am not without health issues but by conforming properly to the lockdown and by the way - I hate the daily watching of my small sole trading business sink ever nearer to the wall but hope that the top geezer's (WHO/UK government/scientific researchers) get the relaxation of the lockdown as right as you possibly can get it...with the emphasis on as right as they can probably get it. That's all we can ask.

I do hope LR you will get back with your mates/matettes at a match sooner rather than later. Unfortunately though I doubt if it will ever be anywhere a 100% safe.

That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the christenedinjericho party.

Coyy's.

 

[Essexyellows]

If you just promote the top 3 and have no relegation you land up with a league at the bottom with 3 less clubs and conversely a league at the top with 3 too many. So you must promote and relegate across the leagues or just abandon the season and start again once you can. The biggest challenge is for the supporters to still be alive to watch the games. Somebody will not agree but hey when has a decision been universally accepted. We might miss promotion but so do Swindon....so not all bad !!

The PL could donate the money from the extra games to the Div 2 (4) clubs.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

The PL could donate the money from the extra games to the Div 2 (4) clubs.

Bloody comrade! ?

Relevant to the wider conversation, I wonder when FIFA and the domestic bodies will realise that they can’t just automatically extend players’ contracts to fall in line with the changes to the fixtures and timelines of their industry. Basic contract law of the land will always win - that’s how the Bosman ruling came to be, because football had been operating separately to the wider world and basically owning people against their will. A sport can’t just infringe upon a human being’s right to employment and freedom of trade, so if their deal is up on June 30, their deal is up on June 30. Be it a governing body, a league, a club - they can’t force anybody to extend unwillingly. The individual has the right to release on the agreed date stipulated in their contract. Otherwise they could argue that they’re being essentially imprisoned, and clubs could try to automatically extend contracts in the future for all manner of reasons, citing this as a precedent. Theoretically, as far as the law of the land is concerned, someone currently under contract at a club could leave on June 30 and play for a new club the next day. They can’t just add on a few months to someone’s contract unless they agree to it - the league fixtures being incomplete by the end of their contract is not the issue of the employee.

There is a lot of poo poo still to come on this, I fear.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

The way I see it is that it all hinges on whether Sky and other TV companies want their money back, if they don't then we end the season, use PPG to determine league positions, scrap the play offs and top 3 (4 in league 2) go up and relegate the bottom 3 clubs.
If they do then I can see it ending up with a lot of clubs going bust and football will be very different in the future.

what will come out of this I hope, is that football will have to take a pay cut.

 

[mooro]

Finish this season off on points per game, no play offs, no relegation. Top 3 up. Impact minimal, based on PPG it reflects the teams "real" position.
Sort out the rest next season if we are able to start as normal, however I think "normal" after this will be far different.

I'm going with this plan too, though maybe only autos go up. There is a case for selected relegations where clubs are cast adrift (Bolton, Southend) but to relegate across the board where things are tight is not fair.
League numbers can be adjusted next season

 

[Steve Gilbert]

I'm going with this plan too, though maybe only autos go up. There is a case for selected relegations where clubs are cast adrift (Bolton, Southend) but to relegate across the board where things are tight is not fair.
League numbers can be adjusted next season

I think PPG is the fairest way. If you have been poor all season then you deserve to go down IMO.

 

[mooro]

I think PPG is the fairest way. If you have been poor all season then you deserve to go down IMO.

Not for relegation.
The difference between missing out on a possible promotion due to extreme circumstances such as these and missing out on possible survival are massive, and I think to relegate teams by a fraction of a PPG at an arbitrary point in the season is disproportionately unfair.

 

[werthersoriginal]

The way I see it is that it all hinges on whether Sky and other TV companies want their money back, if they don't then we end the season, use PPG to determine league positions, scrap the play offs and top 3 (4 in league 2) go up and relegate the bottom 3 clubs.
If they do then I can see it ending up with a lot of clubs going bust and football will be very different in the future.

what will come out of this I hope, is that football will have to take a pay cut.

I’d imagine a lot of players being released when their contracts end and clubs filling their lineups with young players like Nico Jones on 30K a year. That would be fine apart from a lot of good players would find their careers had ended. Not Josh Ruffels though, we’d definitely give him a contract!

 

[SteMerritt]

Apply current form, last 3 home and last 3 away games before the suspension, then apply the PPG from that to the remaining fixtures. Rewards both current points, and teams making a charge forward as well.

Nothing to do with it probably sending us straight up with Coventry, that's just an unintended side-effect.

 

[Marked Ox]

Not for relegation.
The difference between missing out on a possible promotion due to extreme circumstances such as these and missing out on possible survival are massive, and I think to relegate teams by a fraction of a PPG at an arbitrary point in the season is disproportionately unfair.

Bolton and Southend deserve to be relegated as they have been as bad as Coventry have been good. Just surviving or getting relegated is no different from getting promoted or just missing out on promotion.

And home and away has to be differentiated in some way for PPG, whether those are applied to the remaining games as that currently isn't even, due to the Bury scenario.

 

[Belgium Yellow]

Apply current form, last 3 home and last 3 away games before the suspension, then apply the PPG from that to the remaining fixtures. Rewards both current points, and teams making a charge forward as well.

Nothing to do with it probably sending us straight up with Coventry, that's just an unintended side-effect.

Sounds a bit complicated, might as well just promote any team with an "x" in their name.

 

[SteMerritt]

Sounds a bit complicated, might as well just promote any team with an "x" in their name.

Works for me. But if you do that, you will have to balance it out somehow. I suggest by relegating any team with a 'w' in their name.

 

[Mike_H]

Works for me. But if you do that, you will have to balance it out somehow. I suggest by relegating any team with a 'w' in their name.

Crewe Alexandra wouldn’t know if they were coming or going.

 

[m]

Crewe Alexandra wouldn’t know if they were coming or going.

They'll have to play off with Wrexham.

 

[West Oxon U’s]

Shrewsbury CEO on the £125m of " advanced funding " from the PL.

 

[yellowbow]

Not for relegation.
The difference between missing out on a possible promotion due to extreme circumstances such as these and missing out on possible survival are massive, and I think to relegate teams by a fraction of a PPG at an arbitrary point in the season is disproportionately unfair.

I understand what you’re saying but, for me, if it’s going to be PPG then it has to be for everyone across the board or not at all. I understand the implications of this though and would be surprised if it happens. Ending the season now and ‘Seeding’ each team based on this season’s performance so far, seems to be a good idea but that then complicates the European competitions and domestic cups etc. I’ve been going round in circles on what I think is best and still don’t know what the best outcome is. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision!

 

[Northstandboy]

So if they ended the season on PPG, who goes up and down from L1?

 

[MalaysiaYellow]

I think there hasnt been much on this as its part of a much larger conversation within the BPL and EFL. No one has an idea when football can start again, whether it will be in front of crowds or closed doors.

I read somewhere about a club since the suspension of the league they are losing 100,000 a week. With that, they are in talks with the FA, banks and backers to work how long they have funds for. The article quoted the club saying weeks rather than months. Like Bolton and Bury, instead of just 1 club, if you have several or tens, then the rules might need to be changed regarding points deduction or the usual penalty.

 

[Barbadosyellow]

The only truly fair way to decide on promotion and relegation is to finish playing the season, whenever that is possible. That's presumably why it seems to be the preferred option for the FA, EFL and clubs despite all the associated issues.