Abandonment of Bradford City's season could impact York City, Halifax and Harrogate Town

While Bradford City's season is over, Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers' is not.

And League Twos' request for there to be no relegation could harm Harrogate Town and Halifax Town's promotion.

Significantly, English football's fourth tier has decided how to resolve the final placings, setting a precedent for the divisions above and below still to reach a decision.

A weighted points-per-game formula will see Swindon Town crowned as champions, with Crewe Alexandra and Plymouth Argyle finishing in the other automatic promotion places. The division still plans to hold play-offs, but until League One votes to have relegation, it remains to be seen if they will be needed.

The decision also has to be ratified by the Football League and the Football Association.

Stevenage would finish bottom of the table, and Bradford would be ninth.

The National League has been waiting on the Football League to reach decisions before making their own. The Conference Premier, Conference North and South seasons have been abandoned, but no decision has been made on the play-offs.

Harrogate and Halifax would remain second and sixth respectively in a weighted points-per-game table, qualifying them for the Conference Premier play-offs, but Conference North leaders York would drop to second, meaning they too would have to play off for promotion.

But if League Two is successfully in saving Stevenage, play-offs might not be needed. One extra team was already needed to return the Football League to its normal 72 clubs next season, although it is far from inconceivable others could go bust.

Rather than use a straight points-per-game formula, League Two's solution takes into account how many home and away matches each team has to play.

Early on Friday afternoon, a meeting between the bottom two divisions ended without agreement. The situation was outlined to the clubs, who were asked to consider them over the weekend ahead of a vote at another meeting on Monday.

Six League One clubs – Peterborough United, Oxford United, Sunderland, Fleetwood, Portsmouth and Ipswich Town released a joint statement saying they had "no desire for voiding the season, points-per-game scenarios or letting a computer decide our footballing fate".

But League Two clubs then held an independent meeting where they decided they cannot complete the 2019-20 campaign.

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