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English Championship to Resume

English Championship to Resume
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The announcement that the English Premier League will resume in mid-June was met by joy by many fans around the world. The Premier League is regarded as being the best league on the planet, so naturally it was vital the season would concluded with all games played.

However, while the topflight of the English game has long been discussed in terms of how it could restart, there is more to English football than the Premier League.

The Championship is a good example and this league has a direct impact on the Premier League in terms of both promotion and relegation. It was announced on the weekend that the Championship would resume on the 20th of June.

This will be over three months since the league was shut down due to the outbreak of coronavirus. It is great news but the English football League have been keen to stress it will only resume "subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met".

There are 108 games remaining in the Championship this season but there are also the play offs to consider. It is understood the play off final will be played at the end of July and all matches, including the play off final, will be played behind closed doors. In addition, teams will be able to use 5 substitutes during games and name a match day squad consisting of 20 players rather than the usual number of 18.

The dates have been chosen to try and coincide with the end of the Premier League season so relegation and promotion can be decided at the same time. However, while relegation and promotion between the Premier League and Championship now looks straight forward the same cannot be said for the Championship and League One.

At the time of writing, the future of League One remains up in the air. Clubs appear undecided whether to try and continue the season behind closed doors or bring it to an early end. League Two is set to be cancelled but there will be a meeting between the leagues on June 8 in a bid to make a final decision. If the season in either or both of League One and League Two is not completed the EFL have said they will use an unweighted points-per-game system to decide final league placings.

That scenario would benefit some teams and hinder others as they look toward promotion or attempt to avoid relegation. There is also the issue of teams potentially being relegated from the Championship having completed all of their matches and being replaced by teams from League One who did not finish the season. The same scenario applies between teams in League One and League Two.

It does not seem right to have clubs moving between divisions having ended the season in different ways. However, given the situation there is always going to be some sort of compromise to be made, which could work for some teams and against others.

Championship Regular Season
OVERALL TABLE PTS GP W D L +/-
1
Leicester City 94 44 30 4 10 47
2
Leeds United 90 44 27 9 8 43
3
Ipswich Town 89 43 26 11 6 32
4
Southampton 84 44 25 9 10 24
5
West Bromwich 72 44 20 12 12 23
6
Norwich City 72 44 21 9 14 16
7
Hull City 69 44 19 12 13 9
8
Coventry City 63 43 17 12 14 13
9
Middlesbrough 63 44 18 9 17 4
10
Preston North End 63 44 18 9 17 -5
11
Cardiff City 62 44 19 5 20 -11
12
Bristol City 59 44 16 11 17 4
13
Sunderland 56 44 16 8 20 1
14
Swansea City 56 44 15 11 18 -5
15
Watford 53 44 12 17 15 1
16
Millwall 53 44 14 11 19 -12
17
Stoke City 50 44 13 11 20 -16
18
QPR 50 44 13 11 20 -16
19
Blackburn Rovers 49 44 13 10 21 -16
20
Plymouth Argyle 48 44 12 12 20 -11
21
Sheffield Wednesday 47 44 13 8 23 -29
22
Birmingham City 46 44 12 10 22 -16
23
Huddersfield 44 44 9 17 18 -27
24
Rotherham 24 44 4 12 28 -53

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