EFL slammed as 'embarrassing' by director of Portsmouth's League One promotion rivals

All 71 clubs will now vote on the EFL’s proposed framework to complete the 2019-20 season on June 8 – meaning Pompey face another week of deadlock.

While the EFL wants to fulfil remaining fixtures, any division that votes with a 51 per cent majority can curtail their campaign.

League positions will be settled by a points-per-game formula, with promotion and relegation still applied.

If that’s the case, the Blues will enter a traditional four-team play-off along with Oxford, Fleetwood and Wycombe for the right to join Coventry and Rotherham in the Championship.

Meanwhile, Peterborough will miss out on promotion, despite their best efforts to play outstanding matches.

Fry hit out at the EFL’s decision – and believes Rotherham will be getting ‘away with murder’ if they go up given how tight the promotion race is.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: ‘The whole thing is just embarrassing. You could argue that the delay gives us and our fans hope, but if it turns out it’s just false hope then it’s just another kick in the teeth for us all.

‘The club had heard nothing until this statement arrived this morning, but there is no real explanation as to why the vote has been delayed.

‘There’s an argument that it’s being delayed to make sure there isn’t any time to complete the season.

‘I have heard the Government is putting pressure on the Premier League, the EFL and the PFA to fund the costing of the coronavirus testing for lower division clubs because they want the Football League pyramid to survive.

‘The costing is a big part of clubs’ reluctance to let the season continue so if that’s taken away they’ll have to come up with another excuse and it could be the lack of time left to play the games.

‘It’s all nonsense of course. The only fair way to resolve this season in League One is to play it out. It’s too tight to be settled on points-per-game and that’s the case for relegation as well as promotion issues.

‘How can it be right that Tranmere get relegated by something 0.05 of a point? How can it be right to promote Rotherham when they are just as likely to drop out of the play-off places as they are to go up automatically?

‘Rotherham would be getting away with murder in those circumstances.’