View: West Brom & Leeds may be dealt severe promotion blow if some PL clubs win vote today
West Brom and Leeds United might be dealt a severe blow to their hopes of promotion if struggling Premier League clubs win a vote to scrap relegation this season, according to The Athletic.
Premier League clubs will meet today (Thursday) to discuss what will happen if the currently-suspended season is forced to be suspended again if there is a second peak of cases and deaths in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Athletic reports that some Premier League clubs will ask that if the season is stopped again, relegation to the Championship is not enforced.
Of course, if no teams are relegated from the Premier League, that poses a huge threat to West Brom and Leeds’ promotion bids with the top-two Championship clubs six and seven points ahead of the chasing pack respectively.
Fortunately for the Baggies and the Whites, it would require 14 clubs to vote in favour of scrapping relegation in order for that to happen and sources close to The Athletic have said “it is unlikely that they would gain enough support for the motion”.
If clubs who vote to scrap relegation get their way then – although it seems very unlikely – there might be a way for West Brom to still win promotion with a 22-team Premier League mooted a couple of months back.
If the Championship season cannot be completed then the points-per-game model will be used and, as it stands, that would hand promotion to Albion and Leeds.
It would then be down to the Premier League to agree to add two more clubs – potentially three if the play-offs are completed – but it is hard to see top-flight clubs agreeing to play more games when they already consider the schedule to be too packed.
In other West Brom news, this former Albion star has revealed he’s suffered with coronavirus symptoms.
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