All being well the Premier League, the Football League and the Women's Super League should be back up and running on April 30th - after being suspended due to the coronavirus.
The National League is suspended until April 3rd - however, that could last much longer.
Finding a solution to the end of the 2019-20 campaign is by no means easy, and there is still no guarantee that play will resume after that date.
Declare the season null and void.
There have been a few suggestions from certain quarters that the 2019-20 season must be declared void. However, it is surely in everyone's best interests that all fixtures are completed. The game's governing bodies have already offered assistance in this matter; the FA have already lifted the rule that 'the season shall terminate not later than June 1st' and Euro 2020 has been postponed by UEFA to the summer of 2021.
So it would be normal service resumed next season for 2020-21, the same 20 teams in the top-flight, the same 24 in the Championship, 23 in League One following Bury's demise and 24 each in League Two and the National League.
From the logistical point of view, it makes perfect sense and given the prizes and rewards on offer in the modern game expect legal challenges to be issued against the FA left, right and centre.
It would also mean that managers who have lost their jobs over the course of the campaign would have lost them for effectively nothing.
Finish the season in full.
With ten or fewer games remaining for most clubs in League Two and the National League, cramming as many of those games as possible into one month would represent too big a challenge. If you include the early rounds of the EFL Cup, many League One and Two clubs already play eight games in the month of August, and in the National League as many league games during that period as well.
Finishing the season in full restored the sporting integrity of the competition, but with no guaranteed return date complications begin to set in. Then there is the issue of players contracts, with many deals in the National League expiring shortly after the last day of the season. This would mean, in theory, that if the resumption date was pushed back to September some teams could start the season with a brand new team.
If you examine this idea more closely, the more it becomes dependent on the season re-starting sooner rather than later.
Promote, but don't relegate.
This proposal is reportedly being considered by the Bundesliga in Germany, which would increase the German top-flight division to 22 clubs - with two teams promoted and none relegated.
If implemented in England, it would see Leeds United promoted to the Premier League and five relegated in the 2020-21 campaign. Further down the pyramid it would also see Coventry and Rotherham United promoted to the Championship and Crewe Alexandra, Swindon Town and Plymouth Argyle promoted to League One. To make up the numbers in the Football League following Bury's expulsion Barrow, Harrogate Town and Notts County would be promoted from the National League. The plan would then start to get trickier further down the pyramid as York City and Wealdstone, the respective leaders of National Leagues North and South, would be promoted to claim two of the now three vacant spaces in the National League but how would that third space be filled?
Points per game.
Our fourth and final option could probably be described as football's equivalent of cricket's Duckworth and Lewis method. It would involve calculating how many points each side has accrued per game over the course of the 2019-20 season and adding it onto their points total to determine their final league position. This would allow for a restructure which would ensure a smooth restart for the 2020-21 campaign in August or September, or possibly longer. This plan could get complicated if two teams who were in contention for promotion or relegation were due to play each other, and one of the parties wasn't happy with the predicted outcome.
