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Difficult to relegate clubs | Brighton owner on Premier League impasse

The owner of Premier League relegation battlers Brighton does not envisage clubs suffering the dr...
Stephen Doyle
Stephen Doyle

17.24 19 Apr 2020


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Difficult to relegate clubs |...

Difficult to relegate clubs | Brighton owner on Premier League impasse

Stephen Doyle
Stephen Doyle

17.24 19 Apr 2020


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The owner of Premier League relegation battlers Brighton does not envisage clubs suffering the drop unless the season is played to a finish.

The coronanvirus outbreak has seen the English top flight halted for over a month with 92 games left to play.

In Scotland, the SPFL have ended all campaigns below the top flight, with Partick Thistle and Stranraer demoted as a result.

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Brighton owner Tony Bloom (far left, main photo) does not believe the same thing will happen south of the border.

"It would be very difficult to relegate somebody, particularly from the Premier League, if the season hasn’t played out," Bloom said.

"You may get a title winner, obviously Liverpool deserve it, you may use that criteria for European qualification, but I do not see how anyone can vote for that, certainly the percent needed for teams to get relegated."

The clubs in England's top-flight met last Friday to discuss various proposals to finish out the current season.

As the table stands, the Seagulls are in 15th position in the Premier League table but they are only two points clear of the relegation zone.

One of the proposals put forward in the event of the remaining games not being played, and with some clubs having played less games at this point, is determining the final positions by the average number of points per game.

It is another idea that Bloom is not in favour of.

"I don’t foresee a situation, if the season’s not played out, that teams will get relegated on a points-per-game basis,” he said.

"I just don’t think it’s fathomable that a team which is not allowed to play out the season may lose out on 0.2 points based on this system, and also it does not take into account the strength of the team you have not played."

Meanwhile, Brighton's stadium has been converted into the south coast's biggest drive-in coronavirus testing centre.

The appointment-only set-up has been put in place as part of the drive to increase testing for NHS staff and other key workers.


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