EFL chief Rick Parry has warned the Premier League: Accept promotion and relegation or we’ll see you in court.
A group of top flight clubs want to rule out relegation this season if they are forced to play out the remainder of the campaign in neutral grounds.
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EFL chairman Rick Parry will take the PL to court if they block promotion and relegationCredit: PA:Press Association
But EFL chairman Parry has fired off a clear message that the lawyers will be sent in if his clubs are denied promotion due to a closed-shop agreement by Premier League bosses.
Parry said: “I think you can expect the lawyers are going to get wealthy if that happens.
“There would be a degree of outrage, varying degrees of outrage from a number of clubs in the Championship.
“It would be a breach of the tripartite agreement between us, the Premier League and the Football Association and I suspect the FA would have a position on it as well.
“The safe answer to that is it would get very messy because our expectation is that there would be three clubs promoted from the Championship.”
CHORUS OF DISSENT
The Premier League itself has maintained it has always intended to play out the remainder of this season, with the intention of three clubs being relegated and three being promoted as normal.
But since bosses made it clear last week that all matches should be played in neutral venues, there has been a growing chorus of dissent among some clubs about the decision.
Some believe that compromises the integrity of the competition, claiming it is unfair they lose out on playing matches on home soil, and want relegation axed as a result.
But giving evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Parry spelled out what the EFL expect to happen.
He said: “Our conversations have been very straight forward. We expect three clubs to be promoted the Premier League is aware of our position on that.
“In all of the conversations we have had with the Premier League, their position is they expect three clubs to be relegated.”
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Club and league bosses are now scrambling around this week trying to discover what proposals they can come up with to satisfy the government they should be allowed to resume the season on June 12.
They had been hoping to discover the full roadmap out of the Covid-19 lockdown on Thursday when the government have to make a decision on whether to extend the current restrictions.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now delayed making the details public until Sunday – giving the league and clubs just a day to digest the arrangements before they are due to meet again for crucial talks on Monday.
Ex-Tottenham and Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli gives grim prediction for Premier League
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
