The Hotel End

A little note from the CEO of Rochdale, though I think he is being a bit optimistic at there only being a suspension. I can see this season being scrapped entirely with the PPG being implemented.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55530424

Another season in L1 then..obviously there would be so much legal stuff...no relegation's..just a bigger championship..suiting Derby and Sheffield W..by staying up..
But I dont see a ending, just a temporary suspension until the players get priority vaccinations ::)..

Presumably PPG could see us relegated at Rochdale's expense?

I think there would be a fairly argument to say that 21 games (i.e. less than half a season) isn't enough to implement PPG properly. Declaring the season null and void would certainly be the preferable option for us.  

Looking to carry on at the moment.

Until the FA Cup is decimated at the weekend...

Until the efl tests take hold.

FA Statement:

An update for ‘non-elite’ football in England following latest COVID-19 restrictions
We note the UK Government’s announcement this evening with regards to the new national COVID-19 restrictions and lockdown. As a result, the impact on ‘non elite’ football in England will include the suspension of fixtures and training across the following, with immediate effect:

• Steps three to six of the National League System (NLS)
 • Tiers three to seven of the Women’s Football Pyramid
• Regional NLS feeder leagues
• Barclays FA WSL Academy League (unless under elite status)
• FA Girls Regional Talent Clubs (unless under elite status)
• All indoor and outdoor youth and adult grassroots football, including under 18 s (except organised outdoor football for disabled people which is allowed to continue)
• Vitality Women’s FA Cup (which is currently classified as ‘non-elite’ at this stage in the competition)

It is extremely important that clubs, players, coaches, match officials, league officials, volunteers, parents, carers and facility providers adhere to the UK Government’s new national COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and we implore everyone to follow these.

Dialogue will continue with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, leagues, competitions and County FAs and we will provide further updates for the 2020/21 Vitality Women’s FA Cup, Buildbase FA Vase and ‘non-elite’ football when relevant.

We would like to thank the football community once again for its hard work, resilience and understanding during such an incredibly challenging period for both the game and wider society.

Quick calculation that I think is correct (using current ppg for number of outstanding games) would see us relegated

MK Dons   54.8
Rochdale   48.6
AFC Wimbledon   48.3
Northampton Town   48.2
Wigan Athletic   43.7
Swindon Town   39.1
Burton Albion   27.2

With so few games played I am not sure they would use the PPG and just write the season off.

I'm sure i've read somewhere that 70-75% of the season must be completed for PPG to take effect...otherwise season is just voided...

Would feel like another promotion!  ;D

It would not be good for some of the bigger teams that gambled on getting players in before the wage cap in the hope of getting promoted before those contracts run out.

Wow that’s close, just goes to show if we had have beaten Sunderland........

It would add to the excitement if the EFL were to announce now that PPG applied once all clubs had completed 23 league games or something. Every game becomes critical especially for those at the sharp ends..

Have any clubs still got outstanding legal issues with the EFL over last season's end ?

The imminent Wigan takeover deal has collapsed, they only have a "matter of weeks" left in existence. :o

That’s Sh1t, I know a few Wigan fans absolutely nuts but good lads.

It is sh1t; it needs to be one of the clubs above us going pop, not one of the ones below!

(only joking there by the way, I hate seeing any clubs fold, with the notable exceptions of Rushden & Diamonds and hopefully one day MK Dons.)

As soon as the child catcher departs MK will go to the wall.

I think / hope so too. Just did it out of interest as seems impossible to predict what the EFL will do after the last few years.

The problem we have is that the EFL have set “precedence” they decided the outcome of last season by a PPG calculation.
They would be wide open to litigation if they changed the rule for this season.

I think it would only count as any sort of precedent if the same amount of games had been played as last year. If only 1 or 2 games had been played in would be nonsense to use PPG, it will be down to the EFL to decide how many games constitutes enough for PPG to be a fair representation and determining factor.

It will be half a season, we will limp through the next couple of games and then it will be suspended.
Half a season enough? How else will they do it? Null and void no chance.

Tend to agree with manwork.  We need to get  5 -7 points  in next  3 games to ensure we get out of bottom 4 on a % points basis.

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/league-one-points-game-table-northampton-town-swindon-town-and-burton-albions-position-amid-fears-over-202021-campaign-3087034?page=1

Probably very similar to what our statisticians were showing on here?

FA Cup games already being called off...

Should that read games or game?

Only the one so far. Southampton v Shrewsbury.

Games:
Villa v Liverpool
Man City v Brum

And Derby are fielding their youth team.

They haven't officially been called off yet. Only the one I mentioned.

 ;D  That's why I said being... ;)

Fair point  ;D

Its a bit like the Duckworth-Lewis method in cricket this.

Wimbledon's next two games are vs Sunderland and Portsmouth.

Ours are vs Oxford and Milton Keynes.

Should be enough to push us out of the points per game bottom four?

Hopefully

Hopefully Wigan will be ok but if they did go out of the league then we would lose the 3 points for the away win which could also effect things.

oh dear!

What a complete and utter bellend. Get your prima donnas to the back of the queue along with all the other "celebrities" and get the people who actually contribute something to society back to work.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-premier-league-manager-sean-dyche-says-footballers-should-be-fast-tracked-for-vaccines-12182237

I like Dyche but he's doing himself no favours there, is he? Way to piss people off, Sean!

Professional football in England is a huge export earner for the UK.

National Income = https://www.educba.com/national-income-formula/

I agree with your sentiment about an orderly queue.

It might be a huge export earner, but that doesn't put food ont he table of a family where both parents are furloughed.

No, the governments doing that.

I see the boards is the southern, northern & isthmian leagues have agreed the leagues should cease immediately and be declared null & void.

70,000 new infections today and over 1300 deaths, just think a couple of weeks ago you could go to sixfields and watch the footy, unbelievable really.
For sure the league will either be null and void or PPG once they start mass testing twice a week, as I said before the efl have set precedent in PPG.

I think his point is that the tax revenue gained from playing the games would pay for many more vaccines than the ones used to allow them to play.
Makes sense to me.

The best decision.

The revenue from all the fines they are handing out will pay for quite a few vaccinations.

If the governing bodies had any sense they would have held a meeting in the summer with regards how to end this season should it also be prematurely ended and got all clubs to agree to it in advance to save any of the sillyness at the end of last year with clubs threatening to sue etc. Whether they did hold such a meeting, I don't know but I can have a guess

If anyone actually pays any of them!

That’s far too logical for the efl mate.  ;D

To think that any football (EFL or PL) is being played is unbelievable. Keeping the schools open was the greatest mistake. This is just another.

Absolutely beggars belief, a few weeks ago you could he watched it in the stadium and then gone for a beer afterwards!

Calm down fella. Lets wait until Tuesday before Bristol Rovers beat Wimbledon before making any hasty decisions!  ;D

Like your thinking there mate  ;D

Jail if you don't and you still have to pay.

 ;D ;D

I thought a certain % of the season had to be completed before PPG can be considered?

The EFL make the rules up as they go along.

Come on Bristol Rovers. And then stop the ceynt!  ;D

Last season there were 36/37 games played before ppg was used. Half a season for me is too short to make ppg viable.
If it does go that way we need to win the next two or three. But I cannot see how they could go with ppg when there is such a disparity in the number of games played.

                             GP    W    D    L    GF    GA    GD    Pts   PPG    last 8
1     Lincoln City    20    13    2    5    31    17    +14    41    2.05  2.25
2     Hull City            19    12    1    6    31    18    +13    37    1.95  1.63
3     Portsmouth    19    10    5    4    32    15    +17    35    1.84  1.88
4     Doncaster    18    10    3    5    32    20    +12    33    1.83  2.00
5     Peterborough    18    10    2    6    29    19    +10    32    1.78  1.25
6     Charlton            19    9    5    5    29    22    +7    32    1.68  1.13
7     Ipswich Town    18    10    2    6    23    19    +4    32    1.78  1.25
8     Accrington    16    9    3    4    23    17    +6    30    1.88  1.88
9     Crewe Alex    20    9    3    8    25    21    +4    30    1.50  1.75
10     Fleetwood    20    8    5    7    28    18    +10    29    1.45  1.25    
11     Sunderland    18    7    8    3    23    14    +9    29    1.61  1.00
12     Oxford Utd    20    8    4    8    30    27    +3    28    1.40  1.88    
13     Blackpool    20    8    3    9    20    23    -3    27    1.35  1.38
14     Gillingham    20    8    2    10    23    26    -3    26    1.30  1.50    
15     Plymouth    21    7    5    9    28    37    -9    26    1.24  0.88    
16     Milton Keynes    21    6    7    8    26    25    +1    25    1.19  1.50    
17     Shrewsbury    20    5    9    6    21    25    -4    24    1.20  2.00
18     Bristol Rovers    18    6    4    8    20    27    -7    22    1.22  1.25    
19     Northampton    21    6    4    11    19    36    -17    22    1.05  1.00    
20     Wimbledon    20    5    6    9    25    33    -8    21    1.05  0.50    
21     Rochdale            18    5    4    9    23    30    -7    19    1.06  0.88
22     Wigan Athletic    20    5    4    11    21    35    -14    19    0.95  1.50    
23     Swindon Town    20    5    2    13    25    41    -16    17    0.85  0.50    
24     Burton Albion    22    2    7    13    28    50    -22    13    0.59  0.38    

Suspension of the season still to happen?

It wasn't suspended when the cases were going up, so I don't see why it should be suspended now they are coming down.

Glastonbury (June) 2021 called off. Doesn't augur well for crowds back in grounds does it ? Or the Euros.

I think there is a big difference between an event attended by 200,000 where achieving social distancing is a practical impossibility as well as probably being financially not viable and crowds in football grounds. I can see when the lockdown goes back into a tier system fans being allowed back similarly to pre-lockdown in limited quantities, especially considering where the country is with in the vaccination process. Full crowds though probably not till next season at the earliest.

If the East Stand was finished we would have been able to get that many fans in. Short sightedness again  8)

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/national-league-north-and-south-divisions-suspended-two-weeks-3109644

It's moving closer...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55768033

Let's hope the downward trend continues.

Very early signs that its going back up again in places like Leicester unfortunately.

I say do it now and decide the final table on PPG.  >:D

National Leagues North and South vote to cease their seasons immediately.

Dependent on how they are going to sort things out Brackley are in with a very good chance of moving up to the Conference proper.

Has the Suspension of EFL still likely to happen with the end of lockdown a month or so away ? Or have the doom mongers changed their minds ?  ;D

Good question

There is no way in the world they will cancel divisions 1 and 2 now .
Semi pro football is completely different .
We will have to fight our way out of relegation in the normal manner

Absolutely no way EFL will be suspended now we are coming out the end of Lockdown. As much as the doom mongers would like to think differently - normality is within reach.