Merge seasons? Playoffs? Looking for resolutions to Chelsea’s season

The suspension of all football leagues raises plenty of vital questions: will there be any winners? What about relegation? Does Chelsea get a Champions League spot? Here are some propositions that help find a middle ground in this dire situation.

Amid the COVID 19 emergency, Italian and Spanish football associations made responsible calls by suspending all football-related activities to restrict the spread of the virus. American sports leagues followed suit. Even the money-minded Premier League and Champions League, after the announcement that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea forward Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive, did the same.

The indefinite suspension, which is basically cancellation, of the football season (and all sports’ seasons in progress) is inevitable. So what happens next, particularly to the results of the current season?

There are two scenarios that absolutely must not happen, the two at the extremes: restarting the competitions from scratch, and ending the league and determining the results based on current standings. The first situation is overly unfair to clubs like Liverpool, who have insurmountable leads; the second for clubs like Bournemouth who would be relegated due to a single goal difference when there are still so many games to be played.

The situation the world is in= was unfathomable a few months back, but it’s a reality that needs to be dealt with. Anything done from this point is going to make some clubs feel hard done by, but here are two propositions that mitigate the injustice as much as possible.

1. Merge the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons

The most concerning aspect of COVID 19 is the uncertainty surrounding it. There is no timeline on the cure or containment of the pandemic. It could take a couple of months or an entire year. We simply don’t know, and the experts are smart enough not to toss around estimates. This makes forming solutions and plans of action even harder, which, in turn, makes the proposition of merging two seasons even more foolproof.

Whether it is August, December or February of next year, the leagues could be restarted with current standings and play as many games as required of the next season’s calendar.

So let’s say that after a preseason in December, the Premier League restarts in January with the league table of Matchday 29. The teams will then play 21 games of the 2020/21 season.

This gives the incipient title winner Liverpool and clubs near various qualification lines like Chelsea a fair advantage based on their performances of the current season. At the other end of the table, it gives a club like Bournemouth enough games to stave off relegation rather than suffer an unfair instant relegation.

This could be a universally satisfactory solution for all leagues and cup competitions – domestic and international – around the world. The Champions League and FA Cup could even pick up right from where they left off.

The only loose end would be transfer windows, which could be collectively decided on.

The football season would be termed the “2019/21 Season,” which is by far the most fair and sensible resolution to this pandemic mess.

2. India Premier League-esque playoff system

If the situation comes to wrapping up the season in a couple of weeks of June or July, India’s domestic cricket extravaganza inspires a quick but fair solution.

The Indian Premier League is an eight-team competition that follows a league and knockout format, where first all teams play each other home and away. The unique knockout bracket, though, is where the applicable solution lies.

The first round of playoffs features a qualifier game between first-place vs. second-place, and an eliminator game between third-place vs. fourth-place.

The winner of the qualifier game between the top two teams automatically goes to the final. The loser of that game plays the winner of the eliminator. The loser of the eliminator is, obviously, eliminated.

This gives the top two teams two opportunities to reach the final, while a team in third- or fourth-place would have to win twice – including beating one of the top two teams – to go through.

The format ensures there is an advantage given to teams based on league standings while still giving others (who may have done better with more games) a fighting chance of coming out as winners.

The format could be adopted in leagues like Bundesliga and Serie A where the title race is still very much in the balance for the fourth Champions League spot in the Premier League, or to settle the relegation battle among the bottom four. For example, Chelsea would play Manchester United. The winner would then await the outcome of two more games. The loser (probably Chelsea, unless Frank Lampard uses the time to figure out Ole Gunnar Solksjaer) would then play the winner of Wolves vs. Sheffield. The winner of that game would then go to the finals.

It would give fighting chances to every situation that requires it, and to every club that deserves it.