Exeter City chairman Julian Tagg said he expects that there will be a vote in the coming week on the outcome of the League One and Two seasons.
Speaking to SkySports reporter Chris Hull, Julian touched on a number of subjects including the strength of our Supporter Trust ownership model and the potential algorithms that could decide the promotion and relegation places should this season not be completed in full.
However, following EFL chairman Rick Parry’s appearances in front of a select committee for the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, earlier this week, it has been widely suggested that EFL will not look to restart the 2019/20 season for League Ones and Two.
“There has been an awful conjecture,” said Julian. “But certainly Rick Parry (EFL, chairman) did say in a select committee earlier this week that while it was in the power of the executive to make that decision, to bring the season to an end, it was something he was going to put in front of the clubs.
“I have spoken to a couple of chairmen this morning and they believe and I believe that is still to be the case. The EFL may have a view, of course, that is their job to try and formulate all the factors and there maybe advice but in terms of the decision making, as Rick Parry said, it will come to the clubs.”
Asked if he was expecting to vote in the coming week, Julian added: “I think I do,” he said. “The German situation is the only thing that is clouding it at the moment because it seems that something is possible which people didn’t think was before. That pending, then I think we are probably moving towards that partly because people need some kind of certainty. There is no doubt that every club, from top to bottom, are feeling this.”
Added to the speculation around the season ending, a lot has been made of how will relegation and promotions be decided if that does happen. Exeter City currently sit only a place outside the automatic promotion spots, in the play-off places, having been in the top three for the majority of the campaign. There are some scenarios that would see Exeter promoted and others that would see them remain in Sky Bet League Two.
“I can see the sense in looking at all those possible scenarios,” said Julian. “The difficulty is there are three or four scenarios that all bring out different end products. So, which one of those do you start off with? Which is the right one in the first place, and are you going to vote for football, or are you going to vote for yourselves?
"Are you going to be magnanimous and vote for the one that is best for the football pyramid? I hope that is where we would be in the end, if it really came push to shove, but it is one more conundrum amongst loads of other conundrums.
“The one that takes us up is our preferred formula, but of course that is what everybody is going to say. There is merit in all the formulas and they are just so many variables. I can’t really see which is best for football as such. I think, whether we like it or not, we may end up missing out. However, there are one or two formulas that when they come through they are just as feasible as any of the others and more fair in one way and less fair in another. How that is going to pan out I really couldn’t tell you, but it is something that is coming to the fore now that the conjecture and the thought is that we are not going to play any more games.”
Listen to Julian Tagg’s full interview below