The EFL will reportedly tell League One and Two clubs early next week that the currently suspended 2019/20 season will not be played to a conclusion and will ask them to vote on how promotion and relegation should be decided, with one unlikely proposal potentially seeing the Blues promoted.
Currently the EFL is still officially committed to completing all three of its divisions with its remaining 113 matches played over 56 days behind closed doors with a June 6th start date pencilled in. Players are due back at their clubs for a mini-pre-season on May 16th.
However, the chances of the campaign being completed at League One and Two levels have significantly diminished over the course of the last week with various reports indicating that clubs are keen to abandon the season due to a variety of concerns, including the prohibitive expense of staging fixtures behind closed doors and issues relating to testing, not least the cost which is estimated at £8 million across the EFL divisions.
Now, according to The Athletic, a decision to curtail the League One and Two campaigns could be made as soon as Monday or Tuesday with several proposals for settling 2019/20 having been received from clubs. It is thought unlikely that the season will be declared null and void.
A points-per-game model (PPG) weighted to balance teams’ home and away totals is said to be the favoured proposal with the weighting addressing some teams having four remaining home games, some five, such as Town, and others six.
That would see Coventry placed first, Rotherham second and Oxford third with Town 11th as they would be in an unweighted PPG model, which is among the alternatives reportedly proposed.
Others include the current tables as they stand - which again would see Coventry, Rotherham and Oxford the top three - and only counting the first half of the season, the opening 22 games at League One level.
A table on this basis - whether the first 22 games literally or the first game played against each opposition side - would see Wycombe first, Oxford second and the Blues third on goal difference from Coventry, and promoted assuming the clubs opt to send the top three up in lieu of play-offs.
However, it appears highly unlikely that this proposal would be viewed as a fairer reflection of the campaign than the alternatives.
Other more complicated models aimed at factoring in the relative difficulty of clubs’ run-ins are also said to have been mooted but are understood to have received a lukewarm response.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Norwegian winger George Lewis, who is close to joining Arsenal on a free transfer after leaving Tromsø, is reported to have spent time on trial with the Blues earlier in the year.