Pompey chief hoping to win clubs’ votes

PORTSMOUTH chief executive Mark Catlin says he is hopeful some League One clubs are convinced to vote for the season to be played out.

Coventry City are top of the third tier, five points clear of Rotherham United in second and seven further on from Oxford United, Portsmouth and Fleetwood Town in third, fourth and fifth respectively.

City would be promoted under an unweighted pointsper-game system with Rotherham while Portsmouth would finish in the play-offs.

Naturally they want to play out the remaining 11 matches and try to overtake Rotherham or even City. And they are hopeful a few other teams to vote in favour of playing out the rest of the campaign.

“It’s a difficult situation but we continue to press with a number of other clubs to actually finish the season on the pitch, when safe to do so,” he said. “We have been consistent in that view.

“I would say there are nine or 10 who are firmly in the let’s play category.

“It only takes another couple to come onside with a handful undecided in the middle.

“It’s about trying to make as compelling a case as possible to those clubs who are wavering to vote to carry on.

“If they don’t vote to carry on we have to appreciate that then becomes the majority rule of the EFL. Like it or not, we would have to accept that decision. But there’s more than a couple still on the fence.”

FORMER England boss Steve Mcclaren has hit out at the EFL plan that would see Coventry City handed promotion to the Championship.

The Sky Blues are five points clear at the top of the League One table with 10 matches remaining.

But the season has been suspended for more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Clubs are set to vote next week on how to finish the campaign – either complete the fixtures in full, or call time now and decide the final standings using an unweighted points-pergame (PPG) system.

Under the PPG formula, Coventry would be crowned champions but others would not be so fortunate.

Peterborough United would drop out of the play-off zone and be replaced by Wycombe, while Tranmere would be consigned to relegation despite being only three points from safety with a game in hand.

However, some clubs do not want to resume matches behind closed doors due to the financial implications.

Mcclaren, though, insists it can be done - with help from the football “family” - and branded the PPG proposal “totally unfair”.

“You’ve got to be fair,” he told Sky Sports. “There’s a lot of integrity in this. Points per game? No, you finish the season.

“It can be done. Whatever it costs the clubs, people have to help.

“Not so much the Government, because they are helping in other areas. They’ve got a lot on their plate with furloughing and all that, which is costing them fortunes.

“But there’s enough money to filter down and make sure the clubs like Burton that don’t really want to play and can’t afford to play, that somehow there’s funding available for them to be able to complete the last rounds of matches, so that you get promoted fairly and you get relegated fairly.

“Looking at that (PPG tables), Wycombe are so, so lucky in terms of that, the Peterborough chairman (Darragh Macanthony) will be going absolutely bananas about dropping out of it.

“And definitely down below, Tranmere. They’ve got opportunity, lots of games in which they could go on a run and get out of that. How much is that going to cost them?

“It’s not fair. Either scrap it and it’s null and void – I don’t know how your going to do that – or you’ve got to play the games.

“Football, it’s a family. Now family has got to come together. You don’t want clubs going out of business. This is our game, this is our future.”

Mcclaren added: “We’ve got to find a solution and it’s got to start at the top.

“We’ve got to sort it out ourselves and make sure we give enough funding so that these clubs can be tested, can be safe, can be putting games on behind closed doors and finishing the season.

“Then, maybe, we have the break.