Now there’s no excuse to cut short season

IT MAY well be that Leeds replace Norwich in the Premier League next season. But if so, most likely they are going to have to do it the hard way. The old way. As Norwich did a year ago, in fact.

By gaining most points on the field — not in some phoney coronation bestowed from above, or by punching a rudimentary calculation into a computer.

Just two positive Covid-19 tests across 1,014 conducted in the Football League is no reason to stall football’s restart. It is, however, good reason to abandon the risible idea that a campaign can be considered completed with nine games to go, and promotion and relegation decided by bogus arithmetic based on guesswork.

Norwich went up last season having been proven the best team over 46 matches. Now Leeds — and West Bromwich — must do it, too. That Rick Parry (below), EFL chairman, sat before a parliamentary committee this month and blithely spoke of promotion as if by right shows how mixed up the conclusion to 2019-20 has become. Throughout the Football League there are clubs who see elevation or survival as an entitlement, who would void the season rather than risk its completion — but still expect their dividend. There are even clubs in the Championship who claim they cannot afford to start again. Seriously — a football club that cannot afford to play football? We accept there are unique issues around matches behind closed doors in the fourth tier, but if clubs below the Premier League are unable to carry out the core activity of their business, those above should not be saddled with the consequences.

There should be no promotion from any division that chooses not to conclude. No club deserves to be replaced by another who cannot get to the end of their season and the over-rated Parry should have made that clear instead of pandering to those who crave honours to be awarded, not earned.

The EFL are said to be asking for an additional £200m from the Premier League to stave off financial crisis. Yet why should any club threatened with arbitrary financial oblivion contribute a penny to that fund? The very least the Premier League should insist upon is that the EFL observes its duty to protect the integrity of the pyramid by playing until promotion is secured. Every club, bar Arsenal, abided by this process to earn a place among the elite. It should be no different in this, or any, season.