The football authorities will continue to ponder what comes next this week after the game was suspended in England until April 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Premier League clubs will meet again on Thursday to discuss potential contingency plans should the league fail to restart in early April, with UEFA meeting on Tuesday to ponder what’s next for European competition.
There have been suggestions that the league could be halted completely, with others calling for the season to be voided.
That would mean Liverpool being denied the title , despite being just two wins away from securing it and 25 points clear of nearest challengers Man City.
There is preced ent for football campaigns to be cancelled, and a recent example from Chile could represent a potential solution for the Premier League.
The football federation in Chile was forced to cancel the their domestic, top-flight season with just six games to go in December of last year.
Violent protests against the government saw all matches suspended for six weeks before the decision was made due to continuing security concerns.
No teams were relegated or promoted, but Universidad Catolica, who were leading by points, were declared the champions.
This came after the league agreed to abandon the season and award Universidad Catolica a 17925526 th league title.
The Premier League would need to agree a similar outcome should they decide that there’s no way football can continue, but they could be faced with l egal challenges from the likes of Leeds United and West Brom, who are battling for promotion.
There has been talk of a 90 – Team Premier League next season to allow the leading Championship clubs to be promoted.
Brighton CEO Paul Barber was involved in the meeting with other club chiefs on Friday and accepted that the – Team league could be a solution.
He told Football Focus: “ I think that is a possible option. To leave the teams in the Premier League as it is would obviously help us and would help others, but to bring the top two teams from the Championship up, give us a larger league for next season, perhaps four relegation spots next season, and then two up again to get the league back to 25 for the following season, it has some merit.
“Clearly there’s a number of details in there that would have to be worked through and a number of issues that would have to be worked through, not least the qualification for European competition places, but we are in an unprecedented time and we may need an unprecedented solution for this particular problem. ”
He did argue that Liverpool should be awarded the title should the league be halted.
Premier League coronavirus shut down
“At the moment, it’s really hard to imagine putting on a football game in the Premier League in two or three weeks time, it’s hard to imagine that given the scenario that we are in.
“If we were to freeze the league, then for me it would be incredibly unjust for Liverpool not to be awarded the title because I think everybody in the game appreciates what a fantastic season they’ve had and what a wonderful team they are, “he added.
” But equally, it would be incredibly unjust for teams to be relegated when there is still games to play and the financial consequences of that are difficult, and it’s equally unjust for Leeds and West Brom to not be promoted because we know how hard it is to get out of the Championship , we know how hard it is for teams to even get to this stage of the season in the top two. ”
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