Cobblers chairman Thomas expects play-offs to be ratified at EFL meeting

Chairman Kelvin Thomas expects the League Two play-offs to finally be made official at next week's decisive EFL meeting, handing the Cobblers a one-in-four shot at promotion.

The EFL has called a meeting for Monday, June 8, at which clubs will vote for a framework on how to end the season prematurely. That is likely to include automatic promotion, relegation and the staging of the play-offs, all of which will be based on an unweighted points-per-game model.

The amendments to the regulations will protect the EFL from any future threats of legal action and provide clarity on how future seasons, if curtailed, will be completed.

Fifty-one per cent of clubs must approve the framework before the EFL then ask League Two clubs to formally vote how to end their season, something which should be a formality given all 24 were unanimous in an indicative vote last month.

With Cobblers sitting seventh on PPG, they will then take on fourth-placed Cheltenham Town in the play-off semi-finals later this month.

Thomas said: "It's quite a strange period for us because we've committed to the costs and we've committed to the protocols and James (Whiting) has put a lot of work in to put all the return-to-training guidelines in place and yet we still don't have confirmation that this is going to happen.

"But we are as confident as we can be that this is the direction of travel. The vote is on June 8 and that's when I believe it will be ratified.

"At that point I would think we should have most of the plans in place. The play-off clubs have all been on a call with the EFL and we talked about some of the details and some of the challenges and our needs, so hopefully we can all work through those."

A split between clubs in League One has been the main reason behind the hold-up in making things official but Thomas expects England's third tier to eventually follow the same path as League Two.

"I feel that could be the case," he added. "With how the vote is structured, I believe the framework will be agreed anyway and then League Two will have their own vote.

"If League One want to continue having discussions, they can. But my understanding is that once the framework has been agreed, League Two will vote and based on the indicative vote we had previously and all the conversations I've had since, that's how it will go.

"The Championship are going to play later in the month and then League One will try and figure it out, but most likely they will probably go along the same lines as League Two."