This season is a bit like a honeymoon that has gone sour. It is time to end this prolonged misery and start afresh and pretend that it never happened. And it looks as if clubs at a lower level are thinking along those lines.
The officials representing clubs in Sky Bet League Two are scheduled to hold a meeting later today, with the possibility of terminating the whole campaign at the very top of their agenda!
The highest-paid accountants in the land are of the view that the running costs for lower league clubs are too great, and many of them will be forced into liquidation, as the bulk of their income is generated on match days only, and due to this horrid Coronavirus, everything is at a standstill.
In this regard, Ipswich are better placed than most as the club debt is owned by one man Marcus Evans, and not a consortium, but if a large number of club’s push for the season to end without another ball being kicked, then this would have huge repercussions right up to the Premier League itself.
Yet, in League One, the Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony is totally opposed to any suggestion that the season should be declared null and void. MacAnthony is a strong advocate of completing the current campaign when we get the green light, which could be as early as the 6th June according to the EFL.
He has been angered by so-called ‘agenda merchants’ who want to finish the season on their terms. Sunderland, for example, remains uncommitted to completing their fixture programme, as they are currently undergoing take-over terms and MacAnthony has hit out at other clubs in the third tier of football who want to end the current campaign as things stand.
The Ipswich position is still unclear as there has been no official word on the subject but if League Two clubs decide today to call the whole thing off then it is quite likely that this decision would be taken out of their hands.
MacAnthony was dismissive of the notion however and on his ‘Hard Truths’ podcast he remarked bluntly, “To the owners hiding behind this pandemic to push their agenda of not finishing the season, I say ‘screw you.’ I don’t like that message, I don’t like that excuse, and I don’t like the fact you are trying to hide your real agenda. You are bang out of order.”
He also had a word or two for Ipswich Town and fellow mid-table strugglers. “I’ve seen people out there on social media, people I usually respect, saying the EFL should pay us to play these nine games, that we are not bothered about playing them and if we do play them we will use kids, or they are at mid-table clubs who have achieved F all this season, so they have no interest in playing any more.” Harsh words indeed.
As I have said before though, this season is so disjointed that it would be better to rip it up and start again if, and when, it is truly safe to do so.
