A guide to the proposals on deciding the season that EFL clubs will vote on next week

Cancelling relegation, expanding play-off campaigns and minor regulation adjustments will all be on the agenda as EFL clubs prepare to vote on how to decide the 2019/20 campaign if no further regular season matches are played.
EFLEFL
EFL

Clubs will convene at 10.30am on Tuesday to attempt to agree on how to proceed, before determining whether or not to attempt to play on at a later date.

The EFL themselves have proposed a framework to use an unweighted points per game calculation to decide final placings, plus proceed with promotion, relegation and four team relegation campaigns.

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Three clubs, Lincoln City, Stevenage and Ipswich Town, have proposed slight amendments to the EFL’s framework.

And Barnsley and Tranmere Rovers have proposed alternative proposals, the latter being considerably different.

Here, we present a simplified version of the proposals as well as a look at the voting process.

THE PROPOSALS FOR DECIDING THE SEASON

- EFL PROPOSAL

- League placings will be determined by an unweighted points per game calculation

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- Promotion will take place as planned (Two automatic places from the Championship and League One, three automatic places from League Two)

- Four-team play-off campaigns will take place in each division to determine the final promotion place

- Relegation will take place as planned (Three places from the Championship, three from League One, one from League Two)

- The EFL may choose to reprieve the club relegated from League Two if it believes there is no prospect of the next National League season beginning reasonably close to the 2020/21 EFL season

- LINCOLN’S PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE EFL PROPOSAL

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- Any points deductions suffered by clubs will be deducted after the points per game calculation is made, rather than being included in the main calculation

- STEVENAGE’S PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE EFL PROPOSAL

- No club should be relegated from League Two should the division’s clubs decide not to conclude the regular season fixtures

- IPSWICH’S PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE EFL PROPOSAL

- Should the relegated, League One season not be completed, clubs should be consulted about alternative play-off formats.

- Any alternative play-off format would require the support of six clubs to be put before the entire division for voting

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- Rounds of voting would take place, with the format garnering the least support eliminated in each round.

- BARNSLEY’S ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL

- No club will be relegated from a division that fails to conclude its regular season fixtures

- TRANMERE’S ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL

- Final standings are decided by an unweighted points per game calculation but with a ‘margin for error’ calculation then applied to produce a final points range (FPR) for each club

- The ‘margin for error’ calculation takes account of data from the previous three seasons showing on average the inaccuracy of the unweighted points per game calculation, both negative and positive. A formula for calculating the points range has been produced, giving each club their own FPR.

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- Clubs will be reprieved from relegation if their FRP overlaps with the FRP of any club outside the relegation places

- Clubs in the automatic promotion places will only receive automatic promotion if their FPR does not overlap with the FPR of a club outside the automatic places

- Should the FPR of a club in the automatic places overlap with a club outside the automatic places, they will instead compete in the play-offs. The number of promotion places decided by a play-off competition will therefore increase.

- Clubs will qualify for the play-offs if their FPR overlaps with any club inside the normal play-off positions.

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- Each division will be given the opportunity to opt out of the ‘margin for error’ method once it has been voted into EFL regulations

- Should no club be relegated from League Two, only one promotion place will be made available to the National League.

- Divisions may play the 2020/21 season with an increased or reduced number of teams should the usual number of relegations not take place

- The number of relegation places for the 2020/21 season will adapt to ensure the 2021/22 season is played with the correct number of clubs in each division

THE VOTING PROCESS

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- All voting will require a simple majority (51 per cent) from all clubs across all three divisions combined (potentially 71 clubs) AND a simple majority of all Championship clubs taking part (potentially 24 clubs)

- Barnsley’s proposal will be addressed first. If it gains the support of the majority, its impact on all other proposals will be discussed.

- Tranmere’s proposal will be addressed second. If it gains the support of the majority, there will be no need to discuss any other proposals

- Should Tranmere’s proposal not gain the support of the majority, the three amendments to the EFL proposal put forward by Lincoln, Stevenage and Ipswich will be addressed and voted upon.

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- Then, either the EFL’s original proposal, or a potentially amended version will be addressed and voted upon.

- Should neither the EFL’s proposal nor Tranmere’s proposal gain the required majority, clubs will be required to fulfil the remainder of their 2019/20 fixtures, with the EFL board meeting at a later date to discuss how to proceed.

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