England’s second-tier Championship, EFL plans to resume play on June 20 as the provisional restart date for the Championship amid the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 108 regular season matches remaining, plus the end-of-season play-offs.
The provisional date is subject to all safety requirements and government guidance being met and clubs receiving clearance from local authorities to stage home matches.
“Following Saturday’s announcement by the government to allow elite sporting events to return behind closed doors, the EFL has this weekend agreed to a provisional restart date of the weekend of 20 June 2020 for matches in the Sky Bet Championship,” EFL said in a statement.
Leeds United lead the standings with a difference of one point ahead of West Bromwich Albion.
Fulham, Brentford, Nottingham Forest and Preston North End occupy the playoff spots while Charlton Athletic, Luton Town and Barnsley are the bottom three.
No Championship matches have been played since March 8.
Championship play-off final to be concluded by July 30
In the statement, EFL also said that it has been agreed to consider changing regulations to permit the use of five substitutes in the remaining fixtures and, also increasing the match-day squad from 18 to 20 players.
He said the games, and the Championship playoffs, will be either live on subscription-based Sky Sports, iFollow or a club’s equivalent streaming service.
“We must stress that at this stage the date is only provisional and will only be confirmed once we have met all the requirements, as the health, safety and well-being of all participants, staff and supporters remains our top priority,” said Parry of the June resumption.
“Clearly completing the season in a safe manner is going to require a significant effort by all concerned and, whilst not unprecedented, it will need clubs to play a significant number of matches over a relatively short period of time,” he added.
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