Football suspended until further notice

[flourbasher]

If the EFL pulled the plug now they could be criticised for not giving every opportunity for the season to finish naturally even, with govt approval, if the games are played behind closed doors.

Otherwise clubs like pboro and Portsmouth are likely to mount legal challenges. If the govt decides in mid to late May that sports cannot be resumed for further weeks / months then these clubs will have to accept that they couldn't get themselves into the top three.
At that point you would have thought that they would be more willing to accept a contrived league table.
If pboro can't get themselves promoted then why would they deny Cov and us going up unless it was out of spite

So in my view it's way too early to end the season even if it's not looking good at the moment

[animallittle3]

Null and void seems to be where this is heading which seems particularly unfair to yourselves and a bit of a embarrassment for ourselves if the truth be told , we weren't staying up , absolutely not .

Relegate us in to league one is totally fine by me bit I suspect that's not going to be the decision .

Walking out at the start of a new season and still a championship club doesn't sit right with me .

I'm out of alternatives .

The truth is there possibly isn't one .

[Brin]

All this talk from this site saying end the season now, I wonder how many would be up in arms if we were sat in 3rd position and only 2 points behind with 9 games to go?

[Nardendee]

But we are not 😜

[CAMiller]

But we are not ��

We could end up regretting it if they decide to play the season to a finish. Who knows what's going to happen but if CA is anything to go by, playing out the season (with crowds) could be quite a wait. The governor there has already indicated that he won't be allowing NFL games to be played with crowds until he's absolutely sure we are on top of this, and their season doesn't start till September.

[Hazza Has A Gazza]

We could end up regretting it if they decide to play the season to a finish

Indeed. Whist any kind of momentum, good or bad, has gone out of the window now, the truth is we were on a wobble when the season was halted and it wouldn't have surprised me if we'd have dropped out of the playoffs given a couple more bad results.

I can't see a restart being possible anyway. My gut feeling is that it will be null and void. My hope is that they call it as it stands now, and we go up. Unless we are prepared, and can afford, to wait however long it takes to restart, then delay next season for a few weeks instead and play it out over less weeks. There's no ideal solution, and from a neutral point of view, voiding the season seems to be the option with the least complications.

I wouldn't be happy with that but there's nothing we can really do.
Ps. Animal, I don't believe you. If it was us getting an undeserved reprieve in the Championship I'd be ecstatic.

[rileyev.the.third]

I don't see what decision there is to make here to make it fair for everyone!!

No matter when it's safe to do so finish this season, play 3 games a week or whatever, just finish it ffs. That way no one can complain. It's the only fair way of doing things. For Liverpool not to be allowed to win the title would be criminal as would us being promoted when we were nowhere near over the line.

There's literally no chance the new season will be starting in August anyway so what's the issue.

The big question for me is what does next season look like not this one.

It's not rocket science at all.

[caytonmiller]

Problem is Riley. It is rocket science. The smaller clubs are already struggling financially. If this season runs and runs the clubs are only going to get into more trouble until some close. Season tickets can't be sold for next season until it has a start date. Clubs can't sign players. Most Players are contracted to end of June. Most sponsorship deals run June to June. It was mentioned about Liverpool shirt deal with Nike expiring in June and they are changing to a different manufacturers.
That's before you get into the European cup games.
The situation is a mine field which the fa/EFL ect could easily sort with a crystal ball
Imo they need to make a decision in the next few week and not leave it open to "just wait and see"
The football association need to make a commitment. They need to say the season will be completed if safe to do so upto xyz date. If this date comes and it's not safe the season will either be null and void or finished as it stands. They could ask the club's to vote on which conclusion they want just don't leave it all hanging

[mellowmiller]

It wouldn't be "criminal" if Liverpool didn't win the title, it would just be unfortunate.
I don't think it will be as simple as you think to finish the season when it is deemed safe to kick off again as there are several issues that will come into play.
The problem of many players' contracts ending in June is a major factor and employment lawyers are already making ominous noises about that.
Perhaps more worryingly there is the very real prospect that a number of clubs will go to the wall before it is possible to resume the season so what would happen then?
The authorities who run the game should make a final decision about this season because their unsatisfactory approach of kicking the can further up the road is just creating more uncertainty at a time when strong leadership is required.

[flourbasher]

The Prem league are already concerned that the TV companies will insist on a huge rebate if games are not completed
They will want to avoid this by trying to complete the season which I am sure will trickle down to the lower divisions if safe to do so
UEFA has also permitted live games to be shown at 3pm on a Saturday thereby paving the way for behind closed doors games

But I think they will only delay the season for so long otherwise it's just kicking the problem down the road.
The football authorities will want to return back to normality rather than have problems over two / three seasons