EFL chief sets deadline for finishing the season

English Football League chief Rick Parry has cast fresh doubt on the viability of completing the 2019/20 EFL season by effectively setting a deadline of July 31st to play all remaining matches.

Appearing in front of the Digital, Culture and Media Sport committee on Tuesday morning, Parry warned that the campaign cannot realistically go beyond July due to the huge number of EFL players who will be out of contract this summer.

That leaves a rather narrow window of opportunity to get the campaign finished with around 56 days required to play all remaining fixtures.

Parry said: “The one plea I would make is that, which is a very sincere one, is that I think the Premier League and the government are working on a twin-track approach.

“Essentially, work out when it is safe to return to train, start training, and then take a decision on when it is safe to play. That absolutely does not work for us. We have to work backwards.

“Our end date is essentially the 31st July due to the situation with player contracts. We can't go beyond July."

"We have 1400 players coming out of contract at the end of June. That is a train coming down the tunnel very quickly."

Given players will need at least two or three weeks of training before the season can resume, decisions on what happens next must be taken quickly.

“Players have been furloughed, staff have been furloughed,” added Parry.

“To expect clubs to bring people back into training now, only then to find they can't play in a month, would be a complete mess. We need to be making decisions within days.

“What we need is criteria on returning to play and we need it very quickly.”

Parry also cast doubt on the possibility of next season starting if fans remain unable to attend games.

"We have a great deal of uncertainty around next season and the undetermined matter of when we'll be able to return with crowds, which for the EFL is absolutely critical," he added. "We're much more dependent upon the revenue and atmosphere generated by crowds than the Premier League.

“We want to resume playing, purely from the point of view of sporting integrity, when it is safe to do so, and we want to make decisions based on hard fact and data rather than speculation.

“We'll return when the government says it is safe and sets the criteria and we'll do so in a way that makes sure all our players are safe and healthy, and there is no stress on the NHS, frontline services and emergency workers."