Evans wants restart date

Gillingham are hoping to hear soon about a potential start date for the 2020/21 season so they can plan ahead. The EFL held their general meeting on Monday and discussions over a new season was expected to be on agenda.

In the last few days Gills boss Steve Evans has been meeting with players and staff in a bid to lay the foundations for a new challenge.

A date for a new campaign will help give clubs a better chance of firming up their budgets.

Evans said: “When we get that date then the chairman will have a real accurate handle on what the numbers will be.

“My personal view is that we will be starting at the end of September, beginning of October.

“Some clubs may want to push that back as far as they can because of the spectator situation (with games played behind closed doors) but there is no doubt that the country is winning the war over this virus. “Hopefully by September/ October we can get in total control of it and maybe we can get the most important people into stadiums, it is not super star striker or manager or chairman, it is the supporters and hopefully we can get them back involved.”

One potential return date, mentioned by Peterborough director Barry Fry, was August 22 but others have suggested dates towards the end of the following month. League 1 clubs will be contesting the play-offs from early next month. A Wembley final takes place on Monday, July 13.

First leg semi-final matches will see Portsmouth take on Oxford and Fleetwood face Wycombe on Friday, July 3. Three days later they play the reverse fixtures. League 2 teams start their play-off campaign today (Thursday). They returned to training much earlier than their League 1 counterparts. Colchester take on Exeter and Northampton play Cheltenham. Their final at Wembley is on Monday, June 29. Swindon, Crewe and Plymouth won promotion automatically and will play the Gills next season. Premier League football returned last night (Wednesday) and Championship football resumes this weekend. The second-tier season ends on July 22 with the play-offs expected to take place soon after. The EFL meeting on Monday was expected to also discuss the prospect of salary caps in the league next season.