Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber has made it clear that he believes that both the Premier League and Championship season needs to be completed if relegation and promotion is on the cards.
This is a potential blow to the promotion hopes of Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion if one of the competitions chooses to finish the season without completing the schedule.
Even if the season is finished - bar the playoffs - some Premier League clubs have made it clear that promotion cannot occur if the season isn't fully completed.
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The Premier League is pushing ahead with their Project Restart plans, with the aim of returning to matches in mid-June, but there remains a number of challenges that need to be overcome.
In the Championship, there is also the desire to complete the season but it remains to be seen if that can go ahead due to the coronavirus crisis - with League One and League Two already widely reported to be on the brink of curtailing.
While it has been suggested that the current top-two, Leeds United and West Brom, could be promoted automatically, with a third promoted side decided by a change playoff structure, Webber has made it clear that Norwich would oppose such a situation - despite the fact that he himself is a Leeds fan.
“A big question we have around restarting is it’s fine if we restart and three teams but relegated, that’s fine, football needs to be played on the pitch and not in the boardroom, but the Championship has to restart,” he told Sky Sports’ Football Show.
“The Championship has to start and play all their games also. What we could not accept is a situation where we play out all our games, get relegated, but then the Championship can’t play and they automatically promote some teams who haven’t finished the season.
“It’s a 46 or 49-game slog. It’s a bit like saying the FA Cup finishes now, we can’t finish it, we’re in the quarter-finals, we’ve beaten a top-six Championship side and Premier League sides, does that mean we win the FA Cup, all get a medal and qualify for Europe?
“That would devalue the FA Cup and it’s a really important sporting point, it needs to be settled on the pitch, both coming up or going down, and we accept that. We run our club as if we’re going to finish 20th, that’s how we budget, because we have to and they’re the rules that we’re playing with. If we get relegated on the pitch, we don’t like it and it’s not nice, but it’s also not a major surprise.
“If the season didn’t restart, that would be my honest opinion (that Leeds and West Brom stay in the Championship). In the non-league, they’ve already said there is no promotion or relegation, so I don’t know how you can change the rules. I don’t think that’s fair and I don’t think anyone can think that’s right.
“To be honest, I’m a Leeds fan and I had a season ticket for ten years. We all want Leeds back in the Premier League, any true fan believes they should be back, but they have to do it on the pitch.”
