Four of England’s leading football organisations have unanimously agreed that ‘football must only return when it is safe and appropriate to do so’, as the country continues to battle against the coronavirus.
This comes after the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), the Premier League, the EFL and the League Managers Association (LMA) met on April 1 to discuss the fate of the 2019/20 league and cup season.
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All leagues in the UK were suspended on March 13 due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and it is not known if the current campaign will continue.
Prior to the hiatus, Wycombe Wanderers sat in eighth place on 59 points - just one point off the play-off places.
The Chairboys are one of three clubs to be stuck on 59 points but have two games in hand over their promotion-pushing rivals.
However, it is not known if Wycombe are able to continue with their fairytale season, as the original announcement revealed that the current campaign was suspended for Premier League and Football League clubs until Saturday, April 4.
But as the virus continued to spread at a rapid pace, it was confirmed on March 19 that the season would not return until April 30, ‘at the earliest’.
Wycombe, who have spent the whole season pushing for promotion, would have played Rotherham United tomorrow afternoon at Adams Park if the season had resumed.
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In a joint statement that was released on Wednesday, April 1, the four major football organisations said: “Senior representatives from the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), the Premier League, the EFL and the League Managers Association (LMA) met today (April 1) and shared a constructive meeting regarding the challenges facing the game as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The meeting reiterated that the overriding priority is the health and wellbeing of the nation - including that of players, coaches, managers, club staff and supporters – and everyone agreed football must only return when it is safe and appropriate to do so.
“No decisions were taken today, with discussions set to continue in the next 48 hours with a focus on several high-profile matters, including player wages and the resumption of the 2019/20 season.”
The announcement by the four parties on Wednesday was made just six days after the FA (the Football Association), announced that steps three to six in the National League System would end effective immediately.
This means that every club result for every team in those four leagues respectively will be expunged from the record.
Additionally, there will be no promotion or relegation for any of the teams in those four leagues.
The FA also announced on March 26 that they had decided to end the season for teams in tiers three to seven in the woman’s league, with all the results being removed from the record.
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Similar to the NLS, there will be no promotion or relegation for the clubs who participated in those leagues, respectively.
Due to the ongoing health crisis which is impacting the world, other football competitions have been called off - with this year’s European Champions have been moved to 2021. The Euros would have seen the final take place at Wembley.
Similarly, other major sporting events such as this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo and this year’s Masters have been rearranged, whilst Wimbledon for this year has been cancelled.
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