Gary Taylor-Fletcher column: Prepare for Premier League and Championship to follow Germany's lead

I don’t know how long the players had been training for beforehand, but you could tell they were looking a little rusty.

People will make the argument that there’s no atmosphere at these games played behind closed doors and it is true.

But you could tell the players – in the Dortmund v Schalke game especially – were playing for the points and they weren’t just going through the motions like you do in a pre-season friendly.

The way Dortmund played was unbelievable, they’re a really talented side, and football returning should hopefully give people a bit of a mental lift.

More than anything else, it gives people something to watch!

I think it’s inevitable the Premier League will follow Germany’s lead at some point and then the Championship will probably do the same as well.

Further down, who knows what will happen? League Two have already said they’re not going to play but they’ve still got to decide what happens with promotion and relegation.

In League One, it’s still very much up in the air. The clubs at that level are no different to clubs in other divisions, they’re all consumed by self-interest.

The teams at the bottom, either in the relegation zone or close to it, will want the season null and voided with no relegation.

You’ve got the teams that have got nothing to play for and their players won’t be bothered if they go back or not. They’d rather not play and get paid and just wait it out.

Then you’ve got the top six or seven teams that are all going for promotion who would want to carry on – it’s all self-interest.

It doesn’t matter who votes, all the clubs are going to pick what they want and will be of benefit to them.

You read about what Port Vale did, they were going to vote to carry on but when they realised the significance for the other League Two teams – that some of them could go bust – they changed their mind.

Other than that, I don’t see many other teams thinking that way, but circumstances are different across the board.

There’s got to be a little bit of integrity taken into consideration, we can’t have clubs going to the wall – that’s the major concern.

But if it is safe to carry on playing, then it’s got to be looked at.

A lot of the League One clubs and League Two clubs were worried about finishing this season, yet you don’t know when the next season would get up and running. During that time, how would they make money?

If you take players off furlough, can they be put on again? There’s a lot of these questions that remain unanswered.

There’s a lot of ifs and buts, but until someone actually takes a stance and decides what is happening – irrelevant of different interests – these arguments are just going to carry on.

I think League One will probably end up ending early, there’s too many clubs against restarting it given all the money they’d lose.

All of the clubs in the Premier League and the Championship have all said they want to go back as long as it’s safe to do so, which is the main thing.

As long as it’s safe and the right guidelines are followed then I can’t see a problem.

But for the clubs lower down, you’ve got to make sure they’re going to be stable and it’s beneficial for them to do so.

It’s going to cost £140,000 for clubs to buy the testing, and for clubs in League One like my old club Accrington Stanley, they’re really going to struggle to do that.

Maybe the EFL is going to have to look at whether or not they can offset that price or maybe the Premier League can get involved and help.

The big thing you don’t want is these tests to be taken away from NHS staff, that simply can’t happen.

All of these things have got to be considered but for me personally, the season should be finished as long as it’s safe to do so.