‘Leave them where they are’ – Alan Smith paints doomsday scenario for Leeds ahead of PL meeting
Alan Smith has said that if the Premier League season can’t finish and it’s declared null & voided, that promotion would have to be blocked for Leeds United.
The Premier League is set to meet today and discuss options for curtailing the season if the fixtures can’t be fulfilled.
Talking on The Football Show (Sky Sports, Thursday, 9am), fellow Sky pundit Andy Hinchcliffe said, “I’m a firm believer that you either finish it on the pitch or you void it. For me, if we can’t finish it, the season must be voided.”
Alan Smith said that if that happened Leeds and West Brom would miss out on promotion.
“It’s such a messy situation,” Smith said, “and, as Andy says, the clubs at the bottom will be protesting loudly, especially Aston Villa.
“I just hope we can finish the season in the way that it’s planned. The points-per-game system will lead to all sorts of problems.
“If it’s voided, that’s the worst-case scenario, what happens to Leeds and West Brom, the sides vying to get back to the big time?
“We have to leave them where they are, it’s a tangled web… Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The Premier League is pushing an unweighted points-per-game model on curtailment and, along with the FA and the EFL are insisting relegation must happen whatever happens.
The problem it faces is that the Premier League requires 14 votes from 20 to ratify any rule changes.
Any club calling for the season to be declared null and void would need 13 others to vote with them. And the FA still has powers of veto.
However, far more possible is that enough clubs want relegation scrapped to make it impossible to get a vote through. It would only take seven ‘rebels’ to leave the top-flight at in impasse.
We’re not sure what would happen then – it might take the FA to invoke its special powers, although that could then lead to legal challenges.
While the Premier League vote isn’t set to take place today, Leeds are likely to get more clarity on a subject that could be critical to their bid for promotion.
In other Leeds United news, EFL delivers statement on Leeds season-ending vote after report says restart plans in disarray