Matt Scrafton's Blackpool FC column: A decision at last, but one that can't possibly please everyone

Last week, the EFL provided some long-overdue clarity to what is an admittedly muddled situation.

Clubs will be asked to vote, as they probably ought to have done a couple of weeks ago, on how they believe the season should be concluded.

Should the remaining fixtures be played behind closed doors to ensure the integrity of the competition is upheld?

Clearly, in an ideal world, this is the preferred option. But you don’t need me to tell you we’re currently living in far from ordinary times. That makes the prospect of playing 200-odd third-tier games highly unlikely, even if they’re played without fans.

If League One sides agree that playing on is just not feasible, then they have been given the opportunity to vote to conclude the season early.

Should that happen, as appears likely, the final league table will be decided by an unweighted points-per-game (PPG) average.

For those that don’t know what an unweighted PPG average is – which is probably most of us, admittedly – it’s a way of calculating final standings by dividing each team’s current points total by the number of games they have played.

It is ‘unweighted’ because it does not take into consideration whether clubs have played an unbalanced number of home/away games or have weaker/stronger sides still to play.

It’s by no means a perfect solution and there will inevitably be clubs that cry foul, but there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, otherwise it would have been suggested weeks ago.

The main losers would be Peterborough United, who would drop out of the play-offs, while Wycombe Wanderers would climb from eighth to third.

At the other end of the table, Tranmere Rovers would also lose out, with PPG seeing them relegated back to League Two.

The Prenton Park side currently sit inside the relegation zone, three points adrift of safety, but they have an all-important game in hand.

Prior to the lockdown, they were enjoying something of a resurgence too, winning their last three games.

Judging by the final victory in that sequence, the 2-1 win against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, Tranmere had every chance of hauling themselves out of the bottom three with 10 games to go.

They certainly didn’t look like a side fighting for their lives down at the wrong end of the table.

You have to feel for Tranmere should they face relegation if a majority of clubs – 51 per cent is required – vote to end the season now.

The club’s vice-chairman Nicola Palios shared her frustration on social media, posting on Twitter: “It would be devastatingly harsh for Tranmere to be relegated on PPG when it is such a marginal call.

“We have a game in hand and are three points behind. We were on a great run of form (WWW), having made the investment in January to ensure our safety – and it was working.

“How can it be fair that we are robbed of a chance to keep our place in League One but other clubs are given a chance to take it?”

I understand her frustration – you’d need a heart of stone not to – but what’s the alternative? Null and void the season completely?

That’s not really realistic nor is it fair, given we’ve already played over three-quarters of the season.

While Tranmere’s recent form was impressive, their form in the previous 31 games wasn’t, winning just five other matches.

That’s the main reason why Tranmere will be relegated – because over the season they’ve been the third-worst team.

It’s harsh but, as I say, I’m not entirely sure what else the EFL are supposed to do. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Were they to void the season, then you’d get complaints from Coventry City, Rotherham United, Fleetwood Town and others who are in with a shot of promotion. There’s always going to be someone that loses out.

We have seen seven months of football – 80.4 per cent of the season has been completed. And that should be enough given these extraordinary circumstances, even though we haven’t witnessed the campaign come to a conclusion. What is clear, and has been from the very outset, is that these clubs are acting out of self-interest.

Would Tranmere be complaining were they safe in mid-table with nothing to play for, like Blackpool are?

Tranmere just happen to be the unlucky club that lose out in what is a completely unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime scenario. If it wasn’t them, it would have been someone else.