Portsmouth's forceful view on rewarding Coventry and Rotherham with promotion amid incomplete season

Mark Catlin has voiced strong disapproval at teams being promoted if the season isn’t completed.
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But the Pompey chief executive believes that’s a likely outcome in deciding the fate of the League One campaign amid the coronavirus crisis.

Catlin stated he would be ‘aggrieved’ if the Blues missed out on reaching the Championship with nine games still to be played of the campaign – but Coventry and Rotherham went up.

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There’s a growing sentiment from within the EFL that League One and League Two are unlikely to restart this term through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reports have emerged there’s likely to be a vote on the way forward next week when clubs convene for the next of their conference calls on the subject.

Among the possible options would be completely nulling and voiding the season, promoting the top two sides or even putting up a third team up based on points-per-game - which would be Wycombe.

Catlin believes clubs being rewarded with promotion without the season being finished goes against the integrity of the competition.

He said: ‘I would be upset, personally, at the thought.

Mark Catlin Mark Catlin
Mark Catlin
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‘I’ve gone through all the scenarios, believe me, but it’s the principle, if the season isn’t completed, we’re a collective of 23 clubs in this league. I think we would have to start again collectively.

‘If two were to be promoted I would feel slightly aggrieved at that.

‘But we’re one of 23 this year in League One and our vote only carries the strength of one.

‘If you look at how the voting would go, I’m not sure. People tend to vote in self-interest.

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‘No relegation and two promoted would probably tick more than half the league’s boxes, but we’ll just have to see.’

Although there is much being discussed and speculated on when it comes to the season, Catlin underlined there’s nothing concrete at this stage about what will unfold.

He feels everything remains on the table and has to be explored when it comes to possible options and scenarios for this term.

Catlin added: ‘The potential of two up, none done has been mooted really since the start of lockdown.

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‘It’s rumour and speculation at present. It doesn’t matter if you’re the EFL, Premier League, Portsmouth or Manchester United, you wouldn’t be doing your job if you weren’t exploring every single scenario.

‘You have to have contingency plans in place. Whether they happen or not is another matter, but you would be derelict in your duties if you weren’t looking at different scenarios and different strategies to address that.

‘That applies to every club, business or national organisation - it’s just in football it’s quickie stated that’s what’s happening.

‘Working on a plan is very different to putting it into practice.’

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