Leeds United chief takes aim at 'Machiavellian' Premier League promotion and relegation suggestions

The speculation of a return to play for football dominates the media over the fate of any other industry.

This week, significant meetings took place amongst all Premier League clubs and then all Championship teams.

The overwhelming sentiment remains a collective determination to complete the season.

Details around return-to-training protocols have become more granular, allowing our medical and performance team to interrogate them and finalise plans how they will be applied to Thorp Arch.

Our protocols will align with the Premier League and twice-weekly testing and sanitising procedures will ensure that our training ground is one of the safest environments for anybody to return to work to.

Our players are now stepping up their individual training programmes and are eagerly anticipating returning in small groups.

It seems likely that any return to play will be done against a media backdrop of clubs continuing to publicly champion obstacles to the league’s completion and, if it can’t be concluded, why leagues should be expunged [or relegation and promotion abandoned] as opposed to be decided on sporting merit.

To date, this has included trying to set the brilliantly audacious precedent that Premier League teams shouldn’t have to play matches if they don’t think they can win them and the equally

Machiavellian suggestion that a team could refuse to be relegated if they believe that the promoted team is not deserving of being their replacement.

However Greg Clarke, chairman of the FA, provided important clarity to the debate when he stated that the FA would use their golden share in the Premier League to protect the core promotion and relegation principle of the English football pyramid.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just reinforced that this virus is likely to be with us forever and that society is going to have to adapt to co-exist with it.

In light of this, the challenges that the football industry is currently facing are representative of the issues facing broader society.

Cowering in our caves and hoping for this pestilence to miraculously disappear to then re-emerge to see what remains of the game we love cannot be the answer.

We need to channel our human strengths of ingenuity, courage and collaboration to get our game quickly back on its feet so it can be stronger in the long term.

As it was confirmed that the remainder of this season will definitely be behind closed doors, we were able to announce that we will start the process of recompensing season-ticket holders and hospitality guests for the games they will not be able to attend. The social media response to the statement could only have come from fans of one team.

Hundreds of supporters declared the club should keep the funds, with reasons ranging from the fact that three-quarters of a season of Bielsaball had already provided value for money, to the contingent that the cash went towards the acquisition of Ben White.

These loyal gestures, in such a challenging period, demonstrate that the club is more United than at any time in its recent history. Whilst being able to retain a portion of these funds within the club will be invaluable in the most demanding of financial situations, we will endeavour to give all supporters club credit or alternative value in excess of the amount owed, however, for the fans who want, or need, it, full refunds will, obviously, be provided.

On Wednesday, over 200 members of our staff came together on a video call to be updated on how we will return to play and how they will transition back to work. As well as confirming that I definitively have the worst self-administered lockdown haircut, it also reinforced what a hardworking and loyal team this club has.

The overriding mood is one of frustration that our business this season remains unfinished and we could not wish for a more committed group of individuals to take this club back where it belongs.

Finally, this week our friend and legend Norman Hunter made his last journey down the tunnel and onto the pitch at his beloved Elland Road.

We are grateful to Norman’s family for allowing us to film this poignant moment so that hundreds of thousands of fans could join in bidding him farewell.

The funeral was, rightly, a private affair but we remain committed as a club to giving all supporters the opportunity to celebrate his life and re-open the stand renamed in his honour when we can once again all be together at Elland Road.