Peterborough United co-owner is confident he knows when the 2020-21 League One season will start

MacAnthony was responding to this week’s EFL meeting during which the importance of starting the new season as soon as possible was stressed.

August 29 and September 12 were the two dates put forward by the EFL with MacAnthony believing the latter date will be the one chosen.

MacAnthony, who was speaking on his popular podcast ‘Hard Truths’ said: “I did ask Rick Parry (EFL chairman) if he was going to take the bull by the horns and announce a start date and issue the first set of fixtures rather than have another vote among clubs.

“And the impression I got from the meeting was that the season would start on August 29 or September 12 and if I was a betting man I would guess the date in September.

“There were a couple of the usual dissenting voices who don’t want to play until crowds come back, but they were told the TV deals would be in jeopardy. I understand where those chairmen were coming from, but it’s time to get the party started again and do what we are all paid to do and that’s play football.

“The EFL are working on getting some sort of crowd into grounds for when we start. It could be between 20-25% of capacity to start, but I reckon we could get up to 35-40% quickly and then 100% by January as there has been better news on the virus front.

“If any Posh fans out there sitting on the fence in terms of buying a season ticket my advice would be to get out and buy one as you will have priority as far as getting into our ground is concerned.

“If we do start on September 12 our senior players will be back in training on July 20 and if we start earlier they will return earlier.

“We want to get out to Spain or Portugal at the end of August for a training camp if we are allowed and we will have a full programme of friendlies.”

Posh will launch their new home kit for 2020 at 8.30pm tomorrow (July 5).