With the 2019/20 Premier League Season suspended until April 30th at the earliest, next seasons’ arrangements remain a mystery.
A number of the games prominent figures have made their views clear during this period with no football being played.
Karren Brady-Null and Void
Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chair, has insisted that the English football season should be declared “null and void” in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, after the Premier League was suspended until 4 April at the earliest, which has now been extended until the 30th.
Brady wrote, “There is no dodging the possibility that all levels in the EFL, as well as the Premier League, will have to be cancelled and this season declared null and void because if the players can’t play the games can’t go ahead.
“The Premier League hopes that an interlude of three weeks from now will enable it to restart but that may well be dreamland. Perhaps scrubbing Euro 2020 could provide more time to complete the season into the summer but that is also a giant ‘if’. What if the league cannot be finished?
“As games in both the Premier League and in the EFL are affected, the only fair and reasonable thing to do is declare the whole season null and void. Who knows who would have gone down or come up if the games have not actually been played in full?”
Kenny Dalglish-Finish the season at all costs
Former Liverpool FC player, manager and Kop legend Kenny Dalglish has made his stance clear on what should happen with the remainder of the season-he wants it to be finished no matter how long that might take.
The season being declared “null and void” would deprive Liverpool of their first title for 30 years.
Thus “King Kenny” as he is affectionately known by the reds faithful, believes that no matter how long it might take the season should be finished, despite the fact that it might delay the start of the 2020/21 season.
Finish the season where we are
A common opinion amongst social media is to finish the season as it currently stands.
This has been given more legs by the fact that Liverpool are currently 25 points clear.
What complicates this option is that Aston Villa, who are fighting relegation, Manchester City, Sheffield United who are chasing fifth, and Arsenal, all have a game in hand, in which a win would see Sheffield and Villa succeed in their respective goals for the time being.
Another contributing factor to this one is that to conclude a Premier League season, 75 per cent of the games have to be played. The teams with a game in hand are yet to reach that landmark.
Finally, without the play-off process who would come up out of the Championship? It’s been proven that all four teams from 3rd to 6th have as good a chance as each other to get promoted.
22 team 20/21 season
Another one from social media, a popular opinion seems to be to promote the two teams in the automatic promotion spots, West Brom and Leeds.
This would mean no relegation, and the 2020/21 season would see 22 teams in the top flight, with five teams being relegated at the end of the season and only three promoted from the championship, restoring the Premier League to 20 teams from then on.
