Mark Catlin pinpoints when Portsmouth's 2020-21 season could kick-off

Mark Catlin believes that period represents the latest the Football League’s 2020-21 season can kick-off in its usual format.

The dates of August 29 or September 12 have so far been mooted by the Football League – although there has yet to be a decision.

Effectively that would mean waiting around two months for the new campaign to start.

And Catlin is hopeful the Blues will be back in League One competition by the middle of September.

He told The News: ‘You probably have to look at starting mid-September at the latest.

‘If you go beyond that then you’re looking at running into more difficulties again next season if you want to get a full programme completed.

‘I’ve seen late August and early September have been mentioned, but nothing has been decided.

‘Bearing in mind we are late already, logically you want to be starting as soon as possible.

‘But that is going to be difficult given the Championship still have some considerable time to run.

‘While a lot of players in a lot of other clubs will have, at this point, been sat at home with their television on and feet up for the last 4-5 months.

‘They’ll need a period to get fit, probably longer than normal.’

Catlin is still irked by fellow League One clubs outvoting attempts to resume the 2019-20 campaign.

Pompey and Peterborough led the way in the argument, yet the motion was comprehensively beaten.

And he believes those same issues which persuaded other clubs not to play, still exist ahead of the 2020-21 season.

He added: ‘This was part of the argument I still feel badly let down about. We didn’t complete the season on the pitch, as we should have done.

‘What’s changed? Clubs are still going to have to take players off furlough in the next few weeks, you still need to go through a testing regime, while potentially there’s still going to be no fans in stadiums.

‘These made it so difficult to finish last season – now we are starting to talk about reopening the new.’

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