Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart on a 'fantastic' outcome for Millers

Rotherham, who finished the regular season in second place, have been automatically promoted to the Championship alongside leaders Coventry City, who have been crowned as champions.

It is Rotherham's third promotion to the second tier in six years.

The third-tier's 23 clubs held an individual vote on Tuesday afternoon following the English Football League's extraordinary general meeting in the morning.

That saw an overwhelmingly majority of 71 member clubs in all three EFL divisions formally agree to the governing body's proposal for curtailing the season via unweighted PPG - incorporating promotion, relegation and a four-team play-off - if individual divisions decide to end the campaign.

In order for a league campaign to be curtailed, 51 per cent in any given EFL division need to agree to it and that threshold was passed by an overwhelming margin. It is understood that just four clubs voted to carry on the regular season in League One.

For a number of weeks, clubs in League One had seemingly been at loggerheads on how to conclude the campaign, with several promotion-chasing sides in the play-offs keen to play the season to a conclusion.

But in the final analysis, due to the financial ramifications of Covid-19 and the fact that many clubs – starved of match-day revenue – cannot afford to take players and staff off furlough or pay for testing costs to see the season out behind closed doors, the majority of third-tier clubs have voted to end 2019-20 now.

Stewart told The Yorkshire Post: "It has dragged on, but everyone has had their views and been able to put their opinion in writing and put it to the membership and board.

"It has taken so long because I think what they wanted to do is make sure that there were being fair to EFL clubs at all quarters with what the opinion was with the way forward. The outcome is fantastic to Rotherham.

"My initial reaction is I am overjoyed because it has been intrinsically looked at, tested and micromanaged. It has had all the care and attention without making a rash decision."