Peterborough owner slams EFL vote
PETERBOROUGH owner Darragh MacAnthony has criticised the English Football League’s handling of the crucial vote on Tuesday which saw the League One and League Two seasons curtailed.
MacAnthony has been outspoken on the process which has seen Peterborough narrowly miss out on a place in the League One play-offs, hitting out at football clubs for voting against playing football.
But the Posh owner suggested his club had been misled as the EFL had indicated for several weeks that the season would be completed, leading them to opt against furloughing players.
“Every letter from the EFL stated that we wanted to finish the season and we went along with that,” MacAnthony said on Sky Sports’ ‘The Football Show’.
“I spoke to Rick Parry, the chairman, in May and I said to him, ‘What are we doing? Things seem to be improving’ and he said, ‘We want to finish the season, there’s no reason not to finish the season’ so again we went along with that.
“We voted for football. We will always vote for football. I understand the health concerns but we’ve now been told football is back - the Premier League is back, the Championship is back. The EFL is 71 clubs and we’ve been told we can’t play football so it’s devastation and disappointment.”
MacAnthony also said he was disappointed the EFL had not done more to balance out Tuesday’s bad news by presenting plans to start next season, or to provide financial relief as clubs struggle with the loss of revenue.
“So many things could have been done in the last four or five weeks that weren’t done,” he said. “That’s why I’m disappointed with the EFL. It would have been lovely to find out what are we looking at starting date wise.
“Have you, the EFL, had a conversation with the PFA about wage cuts?
“Because you’re going to have a lot of players unemployed and the PFA are going to have to go to their members and, with what’s happened with the pandemic you’re going to have to have a wage cut and we need the PFA’s agreement with that, it’s going to be good for the players, it’s going to keep them in jobs and clubs in survival.”
Southend chairman Ron Martin, who is facing up to relegation from League One, was far less scathing in his opinion of the EFL.
He said on the club’s website: “I do not criticise the EFL conduct, although there is as much merit in voiding the season (under which circumstances each club would remain where they are) as there is in curtailing the season.
“Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on many peoples lives, their families and friends. Circumstances that will haunt hundreds of thousands of people for years to come, if not forever.
“Against that backdrop, what right have we got to be ‘disappointed’ about our club being relegated at this unprecedented time. We are strong and Southend United will emerge from the trauma that is affecting the entire world and impacting its people.”