How much will Coronavirus (COVID-19) impact Aston Villa's season?

[chrisw1]

All football should stop for this season with current positions frozen. No relegations from any League. Promote top two from championship to Premier League and run a 22 team League next season. 4 teams to be relegated from PL at the end of next season and two promoted from the championship. Return to 20 teams in season 22/23. Repeat this model in all leagues.
And oh yes make Liverpool champions simply because they are so far ahead that no under team can claim unfairness.

This is broadly what I was thinking, but 4 relegated for 2 seasons running and Chapionship back to 3 promotions.

[Duncan Shaw]

Sky News are reporting that Christian Purslow was the only CEO to attend the Premier League meeting this morning in discussions about cancelling matches until at least April.

Where were the others?!

Video call.....Christian was there to represent our best interests.

[chrisw1]

Sky News are reporting that Christian Purslow was the only CEO to attend the Premier League meeting this morning in discussions about cancelling matches until at least April.

Where were the others?!

Video call.....Christian was there to represent our best interests.

And probably to try to catch Corona just in case as a back up plan.

[PeterWithesShin]

This town is coming like a ghost town
All the clubs are being closed down
This place is coming like a ghost town
Teams won't play no more
Too much spitting on the dance floor

[rougegorge]

All football should stop for this season with current positions frozen. No relegations from any League. Promote top two from championship to Premier League and run a 22 team League next season. 4 teams to be relegated from PL at the end of next season and two promoted from the championship. Return to 20 teams in season 22/23. Repeat this model in all leagues.
And oh yes make Liverpool champions simply because they are so far ahead that no under team can claim unfairness.

This is a good plan, and not just because we would be getting relegated otherwise. It makes the league sizes reasonably manageable and if Premier League teams were bothered about 4 extra games, they could give them permission to miss next season's EFL Cup with no penalty attached, or cancel that competition for one season.

The issue would be with the teams in line for prospective play-off promotions via the various play-offs...and give some of the Prem millions to the lower leagues to tide them over if necessary.

[JJ-AV]

One possibility would be postponing the season and isolating players. Then possibly playing the 9-10 remaining games over a 3-4 week priod in the Summer behind closed doors to determine outcomes.

If not then cancelling is the only way IMO. There is no scenario of allowing promotion to anyone that would aggrieve someone. The scenario above for example would not sit well with Fulham, Brentford and Forest. You can't promote/relegate any club until it's mathematically confirmed.

[chrisw1]

That's right, the only real losers would be potential play off teams.  But with a global crisis like this there's bound to be some losers and this would seem to limit the damage as much as possible.

[Lastfootstamper]

A lot of suggestions on how we continue from here seem dependent upon the new season starting around its usual time. I don't think there's any guarantee of that at the moment.

[Jon Crofts]

I can see a scenario panning out where the bottom 2 in the PL as it stands at a given point drop and the automatic 2 from Championship get promoted, play off spots are cancelled.

[chrisw1]

Personally if the season is abandoned I think Liverpool should get the title, but it would be utterly glorious if they don't.

[TaxDodger]

I can see a scenario panning out where the bottom 2 in the PL as it stands at a given point drop and the automatic 2 from Championship get promoted, play off spots are cancelled.

In which case getting to the League Cup final and not playing the Sheffield United game will have relegated us..

[PeterWithesShin]

The legal action that would follow on from relegating sides from an incomplete season are massive, especially when a side has a game in hand. I cannot see the FA and EFL leaving themselves open to that.

[mallo]

If it rolls forward to next season with the same teams - we get to ‘go again’ - we should get Paul lambert in to guest for the first game.

[Pat Mustard]

I can see a scenario panning out where the bottom 2 in the PL as it stands at a given point drop and the automatic 2 from Championship get promoted, play off spots are cancelled.

In which case getting to the League Cup final and not playing the Sheffield United game will have relegated us..

I can't see this happening, especially when teams have played differing amounts of games.  Also, our home record is far superior to our away record, and we have still got 6 home games left to play which is more than the teams around us - doing this would just open up all kinds of legal challenges.

To be honest, I think the league being expanded to 22 or 24 teams next season is almost certainly the best way forward.  I also wouldn't put it past the Premier League to use this as an excuse to play at least one round of matches overseas, saying the additional money would be redistributed to the Football League teams who have suffered due to any cancelled matches.

[Jon Crofts]

I can see a scenario panning out where the bottom 2 in the PL as it stands at a given point drop and the automatic 2 from Championship get promoted, play off spots are cancelled.

In which case getting to the League Cup final and not playing the Sheffield United game will have relegated us..

Which is why I said at a given point, you can't decide until everyone has played the same number of games, you could argue this until the cows come home. Who knows, we are in completely uncharted territory. Maybe the fairest way is to say go back to the point in the season where everyone had played everybody once, that's the point you use to decide.