FA green light Leeds & West Brom promotion, Liverpool to be crowned champions if season is curtailed

Will Leeds & West Brom be promoted to the Premier League?

When the 2019-20 Championship season was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Leeds lead the standings ahead of West Brom.

Leeds have 71 points, while WBA are on 70 points.

Meanwhile, Fulham are third on 64 points, while Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Preston were in the remaining playoff spots.

It’s still not fully certain that three teams from the Championship will be promoted to the Premier League for next season.

However, following Monday’s Premier League meeting on Project Restart, Leeds and West Brom will feel confident of their chances of going up.

 

Championship table – 2019/2020

#	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P
1	Leeds United	37	21	8	8	56	30	26	71
2	West Bromwich Albion	37	19	13	5	64	37	27	70
3	Fulham FC	37	18	10	9	52	38	14	64
4	Brentford FC	37	17	9	11	64	33	31	60
5	Nottingham Forest	37	16	12	9	48	38	10	60
6	Preston North End	37	16	8	13	50	45	5	56
7	Bristol City	37	15	10	12	51	53	-2	55
8	Millwall FC	37	13	15	9	44	40	4	54
9	Cardiff City	37	13	15	9	52	50	2	54
10	Blackburn Rovers	37	14	11	12	52	45	7	53
11	Swansea City	37	13	14	10	46	45	1	53
12	Derby County	37	13	12	12	49	49	0	51
13	Queens Park Rangers	37	14	8	15	58	62	-4	50
14	Reading FC	37	13	9	15	46	42	4	48
15	Sheffield Wednesday	37	13	9	15	46	49	-3	48
16	Birmingham City	37	12	11	14	48	57	-9	47
17	Stoke City	37	12	6	19	49	55	-6	42
18	Huddersfield Town	37	11	9	17	45	58	-13	42
19	Middlesbrough FC	37	9	14	14	37	47	-10	41
20	Wigan Athletic	37	10	11	16	38	50	-12	41
21	Hull City	37	11	8	18	49	63	-14	41
22	Charlton Athletic	37	10	9	18	44	54	-10	39
23	Luton Town	37	10	5	22	43	71	-28	35
24	Barnsley	37	8	10	19	42	62	-20	34

Last updated: 1 min ago

 

FA’s Greg Clarke rules out voiding the Premier League season

As noted in the Times, the FA chairman Greg Clarke, who was on Monday’s PL conference call, has ruled out the possibility that the 2019-20 Premier League will be declared null and void:

The FA will not sanction the season being voided or relegation being scrapped and has urged Premier League chairmen to draw up a plan in case the season cannot be completed.

The FA chairman Greg Clarke told Premier League chairmen that the governing body will not sanction the season being voided or relegation being scrapped, reports @martynziegler https://t.co/fk1NdDpJd7

— Times Sport (@TimesSport) May 12, 2020

As clarified by ESPN’s Dale Johnson, the upshot of this decision is that relegation from the 2019-20 Premier League seems a certainty.

Concurrently, that means promotion from the Championship is set to happen.

News relating to my tweet of last Tuesday, on the FA’s Special Share in the Premier League.

FA today reportedly told Prem clubs it will insist season is finished on sporting merit.

So Norwich, Villa & Bournemouth need season to continue to have chance of avoiding relegation. https://t.co/DbsFl4eL3D

— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 11, 2020

 

Liverpool would be crowned champions

Another byproduct of Greg Clarke’s stance is that Liverpool are set to be crowned the 2019-20 Premier League champions.

Liverpool are 25 points of Man City at the top of the league.

Two more wins will guarantee Jurgen Klopp’s side as this season’s champions.

However, even if the season is forced to end, the decision to remove voiding the campaign means that Liverpool will still win the league.

 

What’s going to happen if Project Restart can’t go ahead?

While promotion and relegation from the 2019-20 Premier League now seem more likely that ever to be ratified, it’s still unknown whether the season can play to a finish.

If it can’t, then the Premier League need to agree upon a method of curtailing the campaign.

A few options are available in their scenario.

– Points-per-game calculation

If simple PPG applied in Prem, this is the table:

1 Liverpool
2 Man C
3 Leicester
4 Chelsea
5 Man U
6 Sheff U
7 Wolves
8 Arsenal ⏫
9 Spurs ⏬
10 Burnley
11 Palace
12 Everton
13 Newcastle
14 Southampton
15 Brighton
16 West Ham
17 Watford
—
18 Bournemouth
19 Villa
20 Norwich

— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 11, 2020

– Weighed points-per-game

So with weighted PPG (based on your home/away form and remaining fixtures), West Ham would be relegated instead of Bournemouth.

The only other meaningful change to simple PPG would be Tottenham in the UEL 2QR instead of Arsenal (if Man City’s European ban is upheld).

— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 11, 2020

– Roll-back to gameweek 27

Roll-back seems unlikely as it would force many changes to sporting merit of the table (France rejected this option).

West Ham and Watford relegated in place of Bournemouth and Villa.

Spurs in the UEL in place of Wolves, who only get a UEL place if the Man City ban stands.

— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 11, 2020

– Creation of a playoff system

But let’s also not forget that if there is not the time to play out the whole of the remainder of the Premier League season, then there is perhaps the option of using a shortened playoff format for the key places.

— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) May 11, 2020

 

Premier League & ‘sporting merit’

Why are FA so against nulling and voiding the 2019-20 Premier League season?

Were that to happen, the reality would be that the Premier League would declare that all the 2019-20 games which have already occurred this season didn’t really happen. They’d be scrapped form the record books.

However, back in April, UEFA announced that qualification for the 2020-21 Champions and Europa Leagues would be based on ‘sporting merit’. That ruled out the option of relying on coefficient rankings, for example.

Bottom line: if the Premier League nulls and voids the season, Premier League teams can’t qualify for next seasons European competitions.

 

Also see: Best Netflix, Amazon & YouTube football documentaries & movies to watch during coronavirus isolation

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