WEIRD AND BEAUTIFUL
PREMIER League clubs will tomorrow agree the first phase of a return to top-flight football when they vote for the immediate start of socially distanced training.
They have agreed a softly-softly approach to progress on Project Restart amid continuing concern among some players and managers about the health risks involved in starting matches next month.
Phase two will only be sanctioned when more information, and more reassurance, is widely accepted.
Meanwhile, though, a new battleground is emerging in the game’s seemingly endless coronavirus manoeuvres
– about which system to use for determining final league positions if the season’s matches cannot be completed.
This could be the most fraught issue of all.
It is very likely to be discussed by the 20
Premier League clubs at their meeting tomorrow – and then absolutely certain to be delayed once again.
“It’s too early for a proper discussion,” said one club executive yesterday.that was code for it may be impossible to find common ground.
They saw what happened on Friday when a stormy meeting of League One clubs failed to agree on how to settle final positions in the table.
Why is the issue so hot?
That’s because the FA has insisted the current season cannot be declared null and void in the elite divisions, and that a league table which determines promotion and relegation must be settled.
So, if the Premier
League cannot resume, how might it work?
The simplest method, perhaps, is to go on a points-per-game basis of matches already played.
This would mean
Norwich, Aston Villa and
Bournemouth relegated;
Manchester United pipping Sheffield United into fifth place and a possible Champions
League spot if the
European ban on
Manchester City is upheld on appeal.
Bournemouth would be relegated on 0.04 of goal difference worse than Watford.
Another idea mooted is to use a weighted points-per-game system, taking into account home and away matches remaining.that would meanwest Ham relegated rather than Bournemouth.
The scope for argument, and legal battle, is obvious.
In both these scenarios Aston Villa would be relegated. But they will argue about being treated unfairly because they are one match behind, a game postponed due to reaching the League Cup final.
If they were to win that fixture, at home to Sheffield United, then Villa would stay up in all scenarios. If the Blades won it, they would be in fifth place.
Then there are predictive tables. One is based by Opta on detailed statistical analysis. Its computer model relegates Norwich,villa and Bournemouth, while Man Utd finish fifth and Tottenham are sixth.
There is the pools panel, which has Man Utd up to third place, Chelsea in fifth, and Tottenham 12th.
Who could settle it? Perhaps the only answer is intervention by the FA as the overall governing body – imposing a neutral solution from those above.
In the meantime, work on a possible resumption continues.the earliest likely starting date for the Premier League looks to be June 19.
If the start is delayed to June 26, that would mean squeezing games into six weekends and three midweek rounds, so that the League ends by early August.