EFL farce: ‘I doubt many regular League One watchers, outside of the good folk of Buckinghamshire, believed Wycombe Wanderers would have finished in the top six never mind third’

We are now in a world where clubs can effectively vote for who they want to get promoted and for who they want to face in the play-offs. You can even vote for yourself to go up.

Clubs can also vote to stop other clubs playing, but carry on playing themselves.

Clubs can now vote to claim glory on the back of the lottery of fixture schedules without properly earning it and those same clubs can vote to relegate teams who haven’t been given a fair chance of survival.

We have travelled beyond absurd, through fantasy and sham, and arrived at a complete farce. It’s taken an awful long time as well such has been the crawl of EFL chairman Rick Parry and co from inertia to hopeless dithering.

Laughably the press release after a recent crunch board meeting spoke of ‘the need for decisive action’ before they passed the buck onto the clubs, again. Laughably they asked League One clubs - the division causing the EFL most problems ironically as it’s been so brilliantly competitive - for creative solutions and then rejected the only one they received.

The EFL talk of solidarity and consistency, but then let all three divisions work things out for themselves and come up with different solutions. Promotions and relegations are now apparently really important to the FA, who have to sanction these manoeuvres, even though they refused to sanction any elevations below National League level meaning Jersey Bulls cannot go up despite winning their league in January, but Rotherham United can go up despite being just three points clear of the team eighth in League One.

So here we are. There are still a couple of votes to go - of course there are - but it’s now long odds on third tier clubs will decide to end the season now and award final placings on a points-per-game basis.

Could you ever imagine a scenario where, at the start of the season, clubs would accept some team playing more home games than others? Of course not, but we are in la-la land now.

Coventry City will be crowned champions and few will begrudge a set of fans who have been tortured by off-field incompetence in recent seasons their moment in the sun, even if the title win will be accompanied by a bloody great asterisk.

But Rotherham, who failed to beat lowly sides MK Dons and Rochdale in their last two matches, can avoid the stresses and strains of the final nine games, pick their ball up, and run home and hide from six matches against teams in the top half that would have tested them tactically and mentally.

That is most frustrating for the likes of Fleetwood, Oxford, Portsmouth and Peterborough United who would have fancied overhauling ‘the Millers’, but will likely be frustrated by the whims and wishes of those clubs whose seasons have drifted into mediocrity.

It’s a double whammy of course for my club as a quirk in fixture scheduling means Posh won’t even get to contest the play-offs. They will be passed by Wycombe partly because the Chairboys game at leaders Coventry was postponed as the Sky Blues were still in the FA Cup. Wycombe will now be awarded 1.73 points for that unplayed game and jump from eighth to third. The fact Coventry will receive 1.91 points means 3.64 points will be awarded for a game that if played would have had a maximum of three points. All fine, nothing to see here according to EFL brains and weak clubs who can’t see beyond their own noses.

I doubt there are many regular League One watchers outside of the passionate folk of Buckinghamshire who would have predicted Wycombe finishing in the top six never mind in third place. Their race had been run. They were out of puff and yet next week they could be two wins from a place in the Championship.

It’s Wycombe of course who have adopted the bizarre, and frankly indefensible position, of voting to end the season for others, while preparing to carry on playing themselves

It’s not just a promotion issue either. Of all the League One clubs AFC Wimbledon should recognse the folly of an early finish as they stormed to safety in the final weeks of last season. Their policy, now they are threatened by a similar Tranmere surge, is to pull the plug for ‘health reasons’ at a time lockdown is easing.

Remarkably Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony has been painted as a villain in some quarters (South Yorkshire mainly) for daring to speak out and challenge decisions that demand scrutiny.

Well don’t listen to the feigned disgust of those who have been working slyly in the shadows, out of embarrassment probably, to turn League One into a lottery.

We should be proud we have a man prepared to fight long and hard for our club.

EFL UPDATE: Crunch vote delayed