League Two meeting: Bradford City tell Sporting Life restarting league too costly for clubs to consider

League Two sides have been together in their belief that the season should be called over and places settled on a points-per-game basis, but still retaining promotion, relegation and the play-offs.

Finishing out the remaining games, though, has been ruled as a non-starter for health and financial reasons, with the costs endured in getting games back on, without any matchday revenue, made that course of action untenable.

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Ryan Sparks, director of communications Bradford City, told Sporting Life that although there are some finer details about promotion and relegation to sort out, League Two clubs were united in their belief that the season should end.

“If we played again this season I’d be very, very amazed," Sparks told Sporting Life.

“Three teams will probably go up and I can imagine that will happen. It’s our view at Bradford that the integrity is very important and we’ve said that from the start, even if we miss out on the play-offs, let’s be right about things.

“The cost of restarting would have been astronomical, six figures for every club, well over £200,000 in total I would say in addition to paying a full wage bill because the furlough scheme would have come to an end because you’d be back at work.

“For the guys in the play-off positions, you could argue they’ve got a lottery ticket, but it’s an expensive lottery ticket and they’ll have to decide on that.

“From an integrity perspective I think the play-offs should happen, likewise relegation should happen because you can’t have one and not the other. However, a lot of clubs seem uncomfortable with relegation this season, even though some of those clubs aren’t anywhere near relegation.

“That’s very selfless of them and I’m not saying we’re being selfish, I'd say we're being selfless as we’ve sacrificed a chance to get into the play-offs to uphold the integrity of the competition."

EFL will have to vote as a whole

Sparks says most clubs acted reasonably in their discussions, which did not include a vote as the EFL as a whole will need to vote on the procedures going forward. That may be an issue for League One and the Championship with more division in their thinking.

“The clubs were very reasonable, there’s one team desperate to stay in the division and that’s obvious if you look at the league table. Across the board generally we’re on the same page, it became apparent that it wasn’t a vote day but we just talked openly about where we stand.

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“From the top of the division to the bottom we’re essentially all on the same page, which helps the EFL and I don’t think that’s entirely the case in League One which is pretty split, and the Championship is similar.

“Ultimately what will happen now will be an EFL wide vote, so it’s not the League Two clubs who will decide on what happens in the Championship but the whole 71 clubs will decide what happens for all 71 clubs."

Costs for restart too prohibitive

“The EFL are concerned about their commercial obligations, the club sponsors are pretty understanding considering their businesses are in a similar situation to ourselves. There may have to be some negotiations going forward on individual club sponsors.

“I’ve seen on social media from journalists saying League Two clubs are at war with each other and no-one can afford to play again, that’s utter nonsense, it’s about safeguarding the future of the club and let’s face it if you’re 15th in the division, and likewise we’re ninth, it’s not about showing a lack of ambition it’s about being realistic – with zero income, shall we splash £400,000 trying to finish eighth, or attempt to get into the play-offs.

"Is it possible, of course it is, but teams from below us, 11th right down to 21st would’ve probably voted against that so we were quite realistic about that.

“Let’s take a random team down the table, maybe Mansfield, who’ve spent a lot of money on players, not had the best season and replaced their manager. Things haven’t gone to plan a little bit like ourselves, why would they want to spend the numbers I’ve alluded to there?

“£140,000 on testing, un-furloughing staff and players, additional costs trying to keep players safe, additional travel costs all just to maybe rise two places in the division, it’s completely pointless. So I do understand why clubs aren’t too bothered about restarting the season – it’s pretty obvious.

“And ultimately the costs of continuing, considering the time frames involved, which is the end of July, are really high.”

Player contracts, next season and when fans return

"Hopefully when the season is completely curtailed then we'll give our players some clarity over their futures. I don't see any changes in contracts though because they start and end at the dates when signed.

"I think they'll want to start next season as soon as possible and the government would like to get fans back in the stadiums this calendar year, which would be a fantastic step for everyone.

"If I had to put money on it then I'd say we won't be starting in the first week of August but it might not be too far after that. I just really hope it's this year because we can't have too much of a gap because it would put too many players out of work for too long and change the game for a long time.

"Someone will have to take a risk in the market to get it kick started because it's very quiet at the moment. No transfers have been made outside of the Premier League."

"There will be 400 footballers out of contract at the end of June so supply will outweigh demand for the first time in a long time."

Financial problems and relegation protection

"The clubs who were in financial trouble before this crisis will find themselves in grave danger of going out of business but it's up to them to finance themselves, not the EFL.

"It's not the EFL's responsibility to clear a club's wage bill if they've made a mess or overspent. If owners want to take a gamble they have to pay for it themselves. There's talk of salary caps but they can be very dangerous if you get them wrong and I think they can retract a sport. There's a danger that we're starting to talk about protecting teams from relegation which could potentially lead to a franchise model and re election ideas.

"I think that would be so backwards and will limit the sport forever."

"As far as our situation is concerned, we have the third biggest wage bill in the division behind Salford and Forest Green so we've got to stay in that fight of being ambitious without being the next Bury off the taxi rank."

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