League Two has shown the leadership that English football needs - Stuart Rayner

The Belarusian Premier League might have provided a welcome a distraction for the most addicted football junkies, but Germany’s Bundesliga is a different level altogether.

Even if – and it remains a big if – the Bundesliga’s return is the success we desperately hope, it does not mean the Premier League can necessarily follow.

The way German society has combatted coronavirus is so far ahead of the UK, its football league has a considerable advantage over the world’s wealthiest. By resuming today, they also have time on their side.

Even in our very vague situation, there are still deadlines and timetables squeezing English football from either end.

Chairman Rick Parry has said the Football League must finish by July 31, by which point around 1,400 playing contracts across his three divisions will have expired.

The League’s 56-day window for completing the season means it must start by June 5. Perhaps the loss of the League Two and presumably next week League One fixtures might shave a few days off but with a return to training delayed until May 25, that already looks unachievable.

May 25 is also the date the Premier League are supposed to present a programme for resumption to UEFA.

Step two of the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown does not start until June at the earliest – those last three words are important – so group training before it would seem impossible.

Just when it feels like some progress is being made towards a Premier League return, someone else throws a spanner in the works. Many of the reservations raised by players this week are very valid and perhaps if football had not got bogged down in wage negotiations which, more than a month on, are still unresolved at far too many clubs, they might have been consulted sooner. Their safety, and those of their families are the most important consideration, after all.

The suspicion lingers that some clubs are trying to find any obstacle they can in the hope that staying off the pitch protects their interests.

In the end, it took league football’s smallest clubs to provide leadership. League Two agreed it made no sense trying to continue. By acting first, they have set a template of unweighted points-per-game to decide final placings.

But in keeping with the whole process, they want to have their cake and eat it, pulling up the drawbridge to the Conference by asking for no relegation. If there have been enough games to decide promotion, there have been enough for relegation. You have both or – by nulling and voiding – neither. Hopefully that is the Football League and Football Association’s attitude when asked to ratify the request.

Quite why six League One clubs think there is a case for continuing is hard to see. It leaves Doncaster Rovers and Rotherham United in limbo, but hopefully not beyond Monday.

The Championship is a greyer area, but with so much money riding on it, the Premier League are right to wait as long as possible.

It might be uncomfortable that the threat of a huge television bill is having such a big influence, but it has to. Health must be the over-riding consideration but if that plays ball, dodging a bill of up to £762m for unbroadcast games could save clubs and jobs.

Premier League footballers will put food on the table come what may, but many more livelihoods hang on their clubs.

Encouragingly, the Government made noises on Thursday about the importance of getting underway because of the money it can trickle down the pyramid. Frustratingly, they are not very good on specifics.

Whether there will be extra cash or how it will be distributed, and whether Downing Street is prepared to force the issue or just ask politely, were unclear.

We have to hope the Premier League is finished and the money it earns better shared out, but optimism, like time, is fast running out.

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