[Updated] Football suspended indefinitely

[Valiant in Brum]

It looks increasingly certain that no more games of the 19/20 season will be played in Leagues 1 and 2.
Clubs being asked to vote on how promotion/relegation will work. Normal Points Per Game and Weighted PPG being talked about.
Weighted PPG takes into account how many home and away games each team has left, as over the last six EFL season the average PPG for all home sides is 1.55, and away sides is 1.19.
It goes without saying that we don't go up with this. To restore the 72 EFL clubs, 3 come down from the Championship, replaced by the top 3 of League 1 under this system (Coventry, Rotherham, Oxford), and then 3 come down from League 1 (Tranmere, Southend, Bolton) and are replaced by the top 4 of League 2, due to Bury needing to be replaced. Those 4 are Swindon, Crewe, Plymouth, and Cheltenham. Stevenage go down.
No plans for playoffs to occur.
Its harsh but I don't see an alternative solution. The season has to finish by July 31st in order to account for all the contract changes. It won't be safe to play the games before then.
You're left with this option; unfair on some but as fair as its going to get, or null and void, which blatantly isn't fair.
In every division of football, teams are going to be shafted; for example, Exeter, who are currently 4th, will drop to 5th and miss out on promotion in weighted PPG.
We just happen to be one of the unlucky ones.

Not fair to promote Cheltenham either. As they are 5th atm who is to say they would have won it all. If they are to scrap the play offs then they should send the top three up and relegate three and forget about any team fighting the play offs going up. Thats just guess work and not earned.

Though there are more important things than footall atm.

[Valiant in Brum]

In my opinion promoting / relegating clubs will piss off more teams than voiding the entire season. Any club within a chance of a playoff place will be upset.
My preference is still to finish this season, I still see no problem with that restarting in September followed by a shorter north / south league next season.

That one makes sense. Even if they wait a whole year and start the seasom a.year after it finished and continue. Guessing ehich teams go up and down would not be right. Even promoting a team in 5th over 4th.

[Joe B]

4 hours ago, Emile said:

In my opinion promoting / relegating clubs will piss off more teams than voiding the entire season. Any club within a chance of a playoff place will be upset.

My preference is still to finish this season, I still see no problem with that restarting in September followed by a shorter north / south league next season.

We can't just restart in September; clubs would have to retain players who are out of contract/sign players to replace those who have left.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1. Clubs won't be able to afford with the vastly depreciated revenue streams

2. Clubs would have vastly different squads to the one that had completed 80% of the season; most of them will be worst as they'd had to cut costs during COVID. The only benificiaries will be ones those bankrolled by millionaires like Salford.

You're effectively advocating, in order to maintain a 100% season, 80% on one playing field and 20% on another, where most are much worse off. Its basically two different seasons, united to conclude the former, when most clubs could afford more/better players.

It doesn't sit logically.

[Joe B]

4 hours ago, Emile said:

In my opinion promoting / relegating clubs will piss off more teams than voiding the entire season. Any club within a chance of a playoff place will be upset.

My preference is still to finish this season, I still see no problem with that restarting in September followed by a shorter north / south league next season.

Yes but by voiding the likes of Coventry, Crewe, Swindon will rightly be pissed off as they were bang on course for promotion and you're effectively rendering all the money they spent/work they put in to be very successful over the course of 8 months as completely futile; wasted time and money, pretend it never happened.

Whatever happens, its unfair. There isn't a way out of this that is fair on all 91 professional clubs. Someone, somewhere, is going to feel hard done by. There is no way we come out of this society-altering pandemic with every club satisfied.

We are likely to be one of those clubs which takes the hit. Its not ideal, but we have to suck it up and trust our management team that we'll have a proper go of it next time.

[Joe B]

Will say it a final time; clubs will need to release players in June to stay afloat. Cambridge and Colchester have already done it.

By telling clubs to prepare to resuming the season shortly after June, you're putting them in a position where they either have to give out contract extensions to players they can no longer afford, and therefore jeopardise their financial security in order to maintain their current position, or they have to release them and plummet down the resumed league table as moneybags boys sweep up the released players.

The concept of just postponing the season and starting again at an undefined later date is simply not rational for lower league finances. Players can't be furloughed forever. Eventually, clubs will have to go back to paying their wages, and many will not be able to afford the wage bills they currently do.

 

[Valiant in Brum]

3 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Will say it a final time; clubs will need to release players in June to stay afloat. Cambridge and Colchester have already done it.

By telling clubs to prepare to resuming the season shortly after June, you're putting them in a position where they either have to give out contract extensions to players they can no longer afford, and therefore jeopardise their financial security in order to maintain their current position, or they have to release them and plummet down the resumed league table as moneybags boys sweep up the released players.

The concept of just postponing the season and starting again at an undefined later date is simply not rational for lower league finances. Players can't be furloughed forever. Eventually, clubs will have to go back to paying their wages, and many will not be able to afford the wage bills they currently do.

 

Fans will not be allowed to go to matches until October at the earliest anyway. So Next season is also in doubt whether this one goes ahead or not. So what happens then with furlough and so on ? The season scrapped now and there may not be a football season at all in 2020 so why not continue this seasons standings in March 2021 and carry where they left off. Yes new contracts and so on would have to be agreed I get that but, but there is that gap in between regardless. 

[Valiant in Brum]

11 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Yes but by voiding the likes of Coventry, Crewe, Swindon will rightly be pissed off as they were bang on course for promotion and you're effectively rendering all the money they spent/work they put in to be very successful over the course of 8 months as completely futile; wasted time and money, pretend it never happened.

Whatever happens, its unfair. There isn't a way out of this that is fair on all 91 professional clubs. Someone, somewhere, is going to feel hard done by. There is no way we come out of this society-altering pandemic with every club satisfied.

We are likely to be one of those clubs which takes the hit. Its not ideal, but we have to suck it up and trust our management team that we'll have a proper go of it next time.

My only argument is why Cheltenham ? 

[Joe B]

1 hour ago, Gallifreyan Valiant said:

My only argument is why Cheltenham ? 

Why us? Why Stevenage? Why Wycombe? Why anyone?

Voiding presents the same issues. Why Swindon? Why Crewe? Why Coventry? Why Oxford?

Unfortunately, that's the situation. There isn't a reason. There isn't a single solution that doesn't yield the same question.

We can continue to prevaricate and search for the impossible solution where everyone's happy; in the meantime, clubs go to the wall as they try and assemble a squad to finish a season.

Someone has to take a hit. Its a real shame. Its unjust. Its gutting. But it's life.

[Valiant in Brum]

Read the post above the why one for reasoning

Why us? Why Stevenage? Why Wycombe? Why anyone?
Voiding presents the same issues. Why Swindon? Why Crewe? Why Coventry? Why Oxford?
Unfortunately, that's the situation. There isn't a reason. There isn't a single solution that doesn't yield the same question.
We can continue to prevaricate and search for the impossible solution where everyone's happy; in the meantime, clubs go to the wall as they try and assemble a squad to finish a season.
Someone has to take a hit. Its a real shame. Its unjust. Its gutting. But it's life.

[butt lane vale fan]

I notice the Posh chairman has spit his dummy out and also slagged virtually every club in L1 and L2 off at the same time.
Arrogant knob

[PVFC_4_EVA]

I notice the Posh chairman has spit his dummy out and also slagged virtually every club in L1 and L2 off at the same time.
Arrogant knob

Playing devil’s advocate but I think he has a point. Finish this season at a much later date and scrap next season.

[robf]

17 minutes ago, butt lane vale fan said:

I notice the Posh chairman has spit his dummy out and also slagged virtually every club in L1 and L2 off at the same time.
Arrogant knob

I agree. He has an opinion on everything and has an ego the size of Peterborough. He got on well with the former owner didn't he? I'm glad we have the Shanahans rather than some big mouth who has to continually justify his actions.

[pvfc_loyal]

I've decided based on that that I don't care what happens, I just want Peterborough to get done over.

 

Another one who is only bothered about saving/making money than the actual sporting part

[Wrex]

Void the season and it's unfair on clubs who have worked so hard to get to the top of the table. Finish as it is and it's a bit unfair on teams in the relegation zones, but they were down there in mid-March so it's not the biggest injustice of Covid-19 if those teams are denied the chance to play their remaining games out and get out of trouble. But can we feel too much sympathy for the club sixth in the table being denied a chance at promotion?

An epic legal battle based on the fact you fancied your chances of winning your remaining games cuz you reckon you had an easy run in? Yeah, good luck on that one mate.

[Valiant in Brum]

T

Playing devil’s advocate but I think he has a point. Finish this season at a much later date and scrap next season.

That is it. They have said fans can't return until October the earliest. So the same dilemma over empty stadia and so forth for next season. So why not pick up this season after Christmas and go from there.