'No chance' EFL season will finish - which would see Portsmouth missing out on promotion

Pompey will be told there is ‘no chance’ of completing the season next week, reports suggest.
The  League One logo. Picture: Catherine Ivill/Getty ImagesThe  League One logo. Picture: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
The League One logo. Picture: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

According to The Athletic, a decision to end the League One and League Two campaigns could be made on either on Monday or Tuesday.

Clubs will vote on a method to decide promotion and relegation, with a weighted points-per-game system (PPG) based on how many matches sides have played home and away reportedly the current favourite.

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If that method was adopted, it would see Pompey finish seventh in League One – despite currently sitting fourth and just two points outside the automatic promotion places with nine fixtures remaining.

Based on the PPG system, the table wouldn't change and leaders Coventry, second-placed Rotherham and third-placed Oxford would all go up to the Championship, with Tranmere, Bolton and Southend relegated.

In League Two, Swindon, Crewe, Plymouth and Cheltenham would be in the third tier next term, while Stevenage would be demoted to the National League.

There now appears to be growing view among EFL members finishing the final games in League One and League Two will prove impossible amid the coronavirus crisis.

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Football, like the rest of the UK, is waiting to see what steps will be taken by the government when Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation on Sunday.

There are deep concerns, however, about the cost of safely staging games amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Blues chief executive Mark Catlin conceded earlier this week that logistical issues may put paid to the season, despite strongly advocating it must be played to a conclusion, while winger Ronan Curtis also can’t see football restarting any time soon.

The Athletic suggests that any notion of declaring the season null and void has receded, although relegated sides based on PPG would likely object.

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