Nightmare scenario for Leeds – Newspaper journo says odds are stacked after UEFA chief admission
Daily Mail journalist Chris Wheeler admits that the odds are stacked against being able to finish the 2019/20 season after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the entire campaign could be lost.
Speaking last week, Ceferin admitted that the season “will probably be lost” if it does not resume by the end of June due to the coronavirus pandemic bringing football to a halt in almost all of Europe [Independent].
Leeds United would be one of the hardest-hit clubs in English football if that was to happen as before the EFL was suspended earlier this month, Marcelo Bielsa’s men were top of the Championship table and on course for promotion to the Premier League after a 16-year absence.
However Mail journalist Wheeler says that it would be difficult to pick up where we left off with the 2019/20 campaign, adding that it would be disastrous for the likes of Leeds and Premier Leauge leaders Liverpool.
“In recent days, key figures in football – notably UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin – have begun to talk about the prospect of abandoning the season and I think that’s understandable,” Wheeler wrote on the Daily Mail website.
“Unfortunately I think the odds stacked against salvaging it are simply too great. The only option is to void the current campaign and start again with a clean slate in August or September.
“That would be a nightmare scenario for the likes of Liverpool and Leeds, but I’m not sure we have any other choice. Start the 2020-21 season as we did the 2019-20 one and go again.
“Some clubs will have dodged a bullet, others will cry foul. But we keep being told that these are unprecedented times, and it requires an unprecedented solution. There are more important things in life at the moment than football.”
There will be lawsuits for years and years if the FA, Premier League and EFL went down this route.
Who can turn around to say to Liverpool that they are not going to be able to win the Premier League title this season despite holding a 25-point lead at the top?
Who can tell Leeds and West Brom that they are not allowed to carry on fighting for their deserved automatic promotions to the Premier League?
Why are teams like Norwich, Aston Villa and Bournemouth allowed a second chance of avoiding relegation to the Championship?
It would be one of the biggest injustices in football history if that was to happen.
Forget about next season for now. Finish off this season when it is safe to do so – with or without fans – and let teams decide their fate on the pitch, as they always should do.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites have been handed a major boost over this ball-playing defender eyed up by Victor Orta.