Leeds United boost as Rick Parry says: Promote three teams to Premier League or it will get messy

Parry also warned the 2019-20 season must end by July 31, and predicted a “£200m hole” in its clubs' finances by September.

He was giving evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic alongside England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison and Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney on Tuesday

The heads of some of the country's leading sports were giving evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on Tuesday about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Leeds were top of the Championship with nine matches to play when the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to matches in March. The Whites have not played Premier League football since 2004, and on a sporting and financial level, promotion would have a transformative effect. It is reckoned to be worth in the region of £180m.

"We expect three Championship clubs to be promoted – the Premier League are aware of our position on that," said Parry. "The Premier League expects three clubs to be relegated.”

If the health situation did not allow the Football League (EFL) season to be completed, Leeds would finish in the top three by whatever sensible mechanism was used to decide the final placings. Ordinarily, two sides go up automatically, followed by the winner of a play-off between the teams in positions three to six.

Parry warned failure to promote three sides would prompt “outrage” and “messy” legal challenges.

"The lawyers are going to get wealthy if that happens,” he said. “There would be a degree of outrage from a number of clubs in our Championship, and it would be a breach of the tripartite agreement.

"The safe answer is that it would get very messy. Our expectation is there would be three clubs promoted from the Championship."

There have been suggestions that some lower-end Premier League clubs to use a guarantee that they will not be relegated this season as a bargaining chip in return for completing their season at neutral venues, although a larger-than-usual top division for 2020-21 could be one way to accommodate that.

Whether Parry's support for relegation and promotion extend to movement between the Football League's own divisions was unclear. Rotherham United are in League One's second automatic promotion spot, while Barnsley are bottom of the Championship. Harrogate Town, second in the Conference, are hoping to win promotion to the League despite their season being abandoned.

Parry said it was “premature” to say whether Leeds and Liverpool should be confirmed as winners of the Championship and Premier League respectively if there are no more matches.

He also set a deadline of the end of July for matches to be played, effectively giving them 31 days to get started.

Playing contracts typically run until June 30, and there is a feeling that as those who do not find a new club in the first month after being released are paid for it by way of severance, that this could be used to allow them to play in July with no further cost to the clubs. Sheffield Wednesday's Joey Pelupessy told The Yorkshire Post he would be willing to sign a short-term deal after his expires next month, but few other soon-to-be-out-of-contract players have gone public on the matter. Parry claimed 1,400 players are in that position.

Bradford City have already released four players whose contracts or loans expired at the end of the regular League Two season."Our end date realistically is July 31 because of the situation with contracts," explained Parry. "We can't go beyond July.

"Players and staff have been furloughed and to expect clubs to bring them back in now, to forgo the furlough, only to then find in a month they can't play would be a complete mess. We need within days to be taking decisions."

Bradford and Doncaster Rovers have furloughed players. Rovers manager Darren Moore was furloughed at one point, but is understood to be back at work now

The EFL has previously announced it is working on a 56-window to complete its matches, including the play-offs. In order to meet that timetable, matches would have to start no later than June 5.

Completing the Premier League season will allow the top flight to deliver an estimated £762m-worth of games from their 2019-20 broadcast deals, but Football League clubs are far more dependent on matchday income, and the fear is that with a strong possibility there will be no matches played in front of fans for the final nine months of 2020, some could go out of business.

When asked how many, former Premier League chief executive Parry said it was “difficult to answer”, adding: "Our objective, obviously, is to lose none. We would like to emerge stronger, leaner and more efficient, with a proper reset post-covid.

"We have a great deal of uncertainty around next season and the undetermined matter of when we'll be able to return with crowds, which for the EFL is absolutely critical. We're much more dependent upon the revenue and atmosphere generated by crowds than the Premier League.

“We are heading for a financial hole of £200m by the end of September.

"Clubs are stacking up creditors and there are a great deal of uncertainties."

With a stand-off between many clubs and their players over wages, the players' union, the Professional Footballers' Assocation, has appointed financial services firm Deloitte to look at clubs' books to assess if there was genuine need to be deferring wages.

Parry welcomed the move.

"We all need to share in the pain," he said.

"We are really having an open-book policy, and we are going to show (the players) how deep the pain is. We are absolutely on board with the Deloitte process."

Leeds were one of the first squads to agree to a deferral.

Meanwhile, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has said his members would be willing to consider shortened games on the resumption.

FIFA has proposed five substitutes be allowed, leaving it to the game's rule-makers, then individual leagues to decide if they want to support the idea. They suggest it should apply to all competitions starting or finishing in 2020 – so almost certainly next season too. Now Taylor has said the PFA is considering an even more fundamental change, with shorter halves.

"We don't know the future but we do know is what propositions have been put, what ideas have been put, the possibility of having more substitutes, games possibly not being the full 45 minutes each way with talks of neutral stadiums," said Taylor.

"Ideally, you want to keep the integrity of the competition, and of course, that was about playing home and away and having the same squad of players as before it was suspended.

"So there's lots of points to be made, but above all, can the seasons be completed and can they be completed safely?"

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