Not completing season would be national embarrassment: Leeds chief
Leeds are favourites to win promotion to the Premier League and thus end a 16-year exile from the top flight of English football.
By : migrator
Update: 2020-05-22 11:58 GMT
Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear has said that a failure for English football leagues to complete their seasons while other European leagues were able to do so would be "a national embarrassment".
Leeds are favourites to win promotion to the Premier League and thus end a 16-year exile from the top flight of English football.
"England had some of the finest sports scientists and football administrators in the game and the time has come for us as a sport to stop repeatedly framing the challenges and start delivering on the solution," Kinnear wrote in the Yorkshire Evening Post.
"It would be a national embarrassment if the Bundesliga, La Liga or Serie A were to be able to complete safely and the first and fifth biggest leagues in the world were not able to follow suit if the context remained comparable."
The Bundesliga has resumed their season behind closed doors while La Liga and Serie A clubs have resumed training. Premier League clubs have also returned to group training sessions this week.
Leeds United are top of the Championship table with and would be promoted if the final is decided on a points-per-game formula in case the season cannot get underway. However Kinnear said that they want to finish the season.
"If Leeds United wanted to be opportunist we could have seized on this 'point-per-game' commitment to push for an early curtailment in concert with some already very vocal self-interests," Kinnear said.
"However, our intention has always been to do all we can to complete this season where we started it – on the pitch," he added.
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