Chairman Julian Tagg said Exeter City’s attention would now be turning towards a potential League Two play-off semi-final following an indication from the division’s clubs that the current season should be curtailed.
At a meeting on Friday, it was unanimously indicated by the 24 teams in Sky Bet League Two that they would support proposals for the season to be cut short as long as long as promotion from the division took place, along with the play-offs.
Nothing has been finalised yet and the outcome will be determined on all three divisions – Championship, League One and League Two – agreeing on relegation and promotion issues as well as ratification coming from the EFL and FA boards.
However, Julian said it was now important for the club to turn their attention to what could be a potentially big game in the not too distant future.
Julian said: “Whilst we have to wait to see the outcome from the rest of EFL divisions for the course of action to be finally determined, this position (to curtail the season early, with promotion and play-offs still taking place) has been indicated as a preference and therefore we will be doing all we can to prepare in the hope that becomes a reality.”
The decision to curtail the season is, of course, a tough one for Exeter City to take as the club were well in the hunt for an automatic promotion place with nine games of the season left.
However, such was logistics around making sure that there were enough Covid19 tests for games to take place safely, it became clear that chances of League Two clubs agreeing to complete the current season were slim.
There are a number of sides in the division feeling the financial pressure of the Covid19 crisis and Julian felt it was important that Exeter City, as a supporter owned club, acted in the best interests of all the teams and their fans.
“Whilst the club’s first choice would have been to have completed the season as per normal, the costs for doing so – not only from Exeter City’s point of view – but perhaps more so for the rest of the clubs in the league was a big ask.
“It was way above the means of a huge number of clubs in the league, so the chances of getting a unanimous support for such a proposal was extremely slim, and therefore there was a need to accept was best for football as a whole.”