League One players revolt against 'bizarre' plans to complete Blackpool's season

League One players have hit out at plans to restart the 2019/20 campaign – with EFL clubs set for a crucial vote over the remainder of the campaign in the coming days.
League One players revolt against 'bizarre' plans to complete Blackpool's seasonLeague One players revolt against 'bizarre' plans to complete Blackpool's season
League One players revolt against 'bizarre' plans to complete Blackpool's season

It is widely expected that the League One and League Two seasons – which were suspended on March 13 – will be cancelled, with clubs struggling to see how all fixtures can be completed by the EFL’s deadline of July 31.

The EFL Board are meeting today [Wednesday] to discuss their next steps, with clubs set to be consulted over their thoughts before the end of the week. There will then be a vote on how the season is decided next week.

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And while belief seems to be growing that the season will be cancelled, a number of League One clubs – most vocally promotion-chasing Oxford United and Peterborough United – have called for all games to be played once it is deemed safe to do so.

The government this week suggested that football could resume behind closed doors as early as June 1, with the Premier League putting plans in place to complete their season.

But a number of League One players are uneasy at the prospect of their season resuming and have hit out at the plans.

“There’s no way you can possibly make a player play football in these circumstances,” said Shrewsbury Town captain Dave Edwards, speaking to Sky Sports.

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“Everyone has their own interpretation on how this looks for them, in terms of health and financial etc.

“I wouldn’t be comfortable going back in, not until you know it’s 100 per cent safe to do so.

“I know you can be tested two or three times a week, but how can we justify that when people are struggling to get tests who think they’ve got coronavirus?

“That is a bit of a PR nightmare for the EFL and would come back at them.

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“It just seems crazy that we put football ahead of the public health at the moment. We’re in a global pandemic, we've never witnessed anything like this in our lifetimes before and to think football is more important and needs to be restarted over the next three of four months - when the bigger picture is that we want to get rid of coronavirus – it seems bizarre that we’re even having the conversation.”

His views were echoed by Southend United striker Stephen Humphrys.

“I have invested interests in this but let’s be honest footballers are non-essential,” said Humphrys, speaking to the Southend Echo.

Football returning shouldn’t be discussed until the number of deaths per day drops hugely.

“NHS staff members and other key workers need protecting.

"Both my sisters are front line NHS workers.

"They are the ones who need regular testing and protection, not footballers.

“Football is a game and health is life.”