How Does It End?

The 2019/20 must be completed, somehow.

It would be a huge injustice to all the teams who have worked hard throughout the season to get into the positions they are in.

Liverpool have had an incredible year and thoroughly deserve to be crowned true Premier League champions after completing a full season.

In the Championship, Leeds and West Brom have both earned their lofty positions in the table - they have stood head and shoulders above the rest in what is probably a slightly under-par league overall.

All throughout English football there are sides who are deserving of their current places in the table - Coventry in League One for example, and Barrow clear in the National League.

And in divisions such as League Two where things are a lot tighter with just five points separating the top five, sides deserve the chance to be able to fairly play out the remainder of the season.

Suggestions to void seasons are ludicrous. What are we trying to save? The 2020/21 season which hasn’t even started? It is crazy to suggest that a season which is so near completion, that has had so much effort (and money) put towards this point, should not take precedent over a season which doesn’t yet exist. It is a lazy solution.

The drawback with finishing the season at all costs, though, is how things will work financially. In the lower leagues, many contracts will be finishing come 30th June. So if the season is to carry beyond then waiting for a conclusion, it will cause issues.

Rolling contracts until the season is able to conclude could be a solution, although it may be difficult to financially support these contracts with no football (and therefore income) actually happening.

There are some solutions to this though. The Premier League has already floated plans for finishing the season behind closed doors - also a handy solution to help fulfil the wants of broadcasters who may start to ask for money back should the season not be completed.

Theoretically the EFL could also finish their season behind closed doors and while important match-day income would be lost, it could be partially subsidised by selling match passes on the streaming service iFollow, and emailing season ticket holders a ‘free pass’ for each match.

Logistically this may be an issue, however. The Premier League’s plans involve World Cup style training camps with players isolated in hotels with necessary testing and health precautions (once tests become more readily available).

This is simply not an option for the EFL, with clubs simply not equipped with the resources to be able to pull off such an operation.

While the Premier League’s plan could possibly still work despite some lockdown measures, it would take some relaxing of these in order for it to be feasible for the EFL. And even then, there is the issue of player and staff safety - there will still need to be media operators and club staff at matches.

Presumably, it would likely have to be at a point at which mass gatherings were still prohibited, but office work was deemed acceptable. There is no way to know when this would and indeed if it was to be an option that the government may take.

And that is another factor. With the situation being so unprecedented and with new updates every day, it is impossible to properly plan ahead.

Nobody knows when we’ll be at a point when completing the season, behind closed doors or otherwise, will be feasible.

But surely the 2020/21 season can wait. Maybe if it even just becomes a half season with no promotion or relegation. It doesn’t yet exist, so in no circumstances should it take precedent over the current season.