Suspension of football season is 'inevitable', warns League One chief

Rochdale chief executive David Bottomley has warned it is now 'inevitable' that the English Football League will have to temporarily suspend fixtures due to the rapidly rising number of coronavirus cases.

Rochdale are one of several clubs currently out of action because of an outbreak at the club. Peterborough United, Doncaster Rovers, Wigan Athletic, Sunderland and Bristol Rovers have also all recently seen fixtures postponed.

Just five of the scheduled 12 League One fixtures took place last Tuesday and only another six were completed on Saturday, although that was partly due to the extreme weather.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced another national lockdown on Monday evening but professional football is permitted to continue.

Bottomley told BBC Radio Manchester: "Surely just for a month until the vaccine starts to get rolled out, we could have a break.

"Suspending the league is inevitable. Hospitals across the UK are being told they are to face a massive surge in Covid cases so who are we in football to be trying to add to that situation?"

But BBC is reporting that the EFL currently has no plans to introduce a so-called 'circuit-breaker' to the season, either on a divisional or league-wide basis, with the situation under regular review by medical advisors.

Fixtures will continue taking place as long as it is safe to do so, but the EFL is implementing mandatory testing across all its member clubs this week following a spate of postponements during the festive programme.

Of the 52 fixtures called off so far this season because of Covid-19, 34 of them have been in League One.

Bottomley added: "My fear, in common with that of a number of other League One chief executives I spoke to on Friday, is that there will be so many players test positive that we'll almost have to suspend the season.

"Human life is far more important than whether we play football matches, surely. I'm talking from personal experience. My 85-year-old mother has tested positive and has been in hospital from the beginning of December with Covid. It's best football takes a break and step back."