They’re also going to have to cancel L1/2. I suppose they could try and impose a PPG solution on those 2 leagues, and hope the clubs concerned don’t have the financial wherewithal to sue them.
The FA are merely wanting to try and keep UEFA and the EFL happy, by trying to strong arm the PL into a definitive conclusion that resolves the European and relegation places.
Only PPG will never fly in the PL, not least because dependant on the model used there’s 2 different outcomes. So if the FA tried pushing the PL to vote for one of the two PPG models or nothing, then in essence they’d be asking the 20 PL clubs to decide who they wanted to relegate, as it’d be a straight choice between West Ham and Bournemouth. Legally they’d be tied in knots in court if that was the scenario.
Yes I mean (mainly Kopite) journalists are assuming "sporting merit" automatically means relegation and promotion. Yet Holland have finished the season with sporting merit, and there's no title or relegation. Belgium then same, no relegation, only a title handed out to a team that had mathematically clinched the league in the conventional season. UEFA have accepted both of these as sporting merit.
France have had relegation and the title handed out, and that too is sporting merit (though it looks the most likely to be challenged in court). The FA as you say have cancelled all leagues below tier, with no title or relegation and sporting merit. We obviously don't know what they do with the EFL, but I suspect the EFL will have title winners as it suits them to have their members pushed to the PL.
The point is though, sporting merit is a broad phrase in which there are many intepretations. It does not mean they've agreed to give the title to Liverpool. If they wanted to do that for certain, they would come out and say it, yet they haven't.
The reality is, there will be a vote on the teams to decide what happens. I thought Liverpool would have long ago ditched themselves from the relegation issue. Essentially insisted and the title had to be dealt with seperately. The fact Liverpool fans and outriders are slaughtering the relegation teams publicly, suggests to me that they are aware this will not be allowed to happen, so they have to break their resolve to be relegated. We will see I suppose.
As for PPG, I've seen about 5 different teams relegated on different projections. Sometimes they are relegation on goal difference. I mean who do you relegate if one side has say 36.1 points but a superior difference to the side who has 36.3 points. It's just a legal minefield. So lets see. I'd try to avoid what the journalists are saying too much. Most of them have told us, on at least 5 occasions Liverpool would be imminently handed the title, and it hasn't happened yet. The longer it goes on, the more twitchy they must get, as it appears the less important it is.
