Ross Jones

Sat 30 May 2020 6:30, UK

West Brom’s promotion hopes could be given a significant boost by the Premier League’s insistence that relegation must go ahead this season, according to the Daily Mail. 

It is understood that the governing body are resisting attempts from some top flight clubs to rule out a drop down to the Championship in the event of the season being curtailed early.

The idea has been floated before, but has been met with opposition from the FA, who are keen for promotion and relegation to go ahead as initially planned – even if proceedings are brought to an end early.

And despite the fact that the Premier League is due to resume on June 17th, the Mail suggest that some clubs are still looking to persuade the league to cancel relegation in the event of the season being called off further down the line.

The report claims that these ideas are being met with short change, however, as top flight chiefs resist calls to scrap the drop.

And that is good news for West Brom.

Even though it has been stated by chairman Rick Parry that the EFL still expects three teams to go up and three to go down this season, it remains the fact that the simplest and safest way of ensuring that happens is for the Premier League to make sure that they uphold their end of the bargain, regardless of whether or not the season is played to completion.

Obviously, if it is, then none of this should be an issue, and the fact that the top flight have set a return date is a really encouraging sign.

But there is always the danger that a sudden spike in Coronavirus cases could derail the rest of the fixture schedule, and it would be a lot better to know that relegation is still going ahead, even if the campaign has to be curtailed early.

In other West Brom news, View: Reported 20y/o West Brom target has potential to be fantastic PL addition next term.