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Promotion to the Premier League should be scrapped if Championship clubs fail to complete their season, according to Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber.
Webber insists the Canaries will not accept a scenario in which they finish the campaign and are relegated, only to be replaced by the likes of Leeds or West Brom whose season has been prematurely curtailed.
While Premier League continue to discuss options for ‘Project Restart’, there is less clarity on the the prospect of a return for football in the Championship, League 1 and League 2.
Webber told the Sky Sports Football Show: “What we could not accept is a situation where we play all our games and get relegated, but the Championship can’t play, and they automatically promote some teams who haven’t finished the season.
“For anyone who has got promoted from the Championship, it is a 46 or 49 game slog. It needs to be settled on the pitch – both coming up and going down.”
Webber has also hit back at criticism of the Canaries’ opposition to the Premier League’s plan to return at neutral venues.
Webber believes his club and other top-flight strugglers have been unfairly singled out for sabotaging the proposal, which now looks set to be shelved.
He said: “I was in that meeting and there was a lot more than six clubs who discussed their dissatisfaction around neutral venues.
“For it to be portrayed as the bottom six trying to kill a football season I think was grossly unfair, because at no point did we say we didn’t want to play.
“It’s definitely disappointing because we didn’t deserve that as a club and I don’t think football deserves that. At times like this I think we all need to come together and we’ve got to fix this.”
Meanwhile, Gary Neville has accused top-flight officials of staying “invisible” through the crisis, leading to confusion over how and when the game might be able to stage a return.
Few other top-flight chiefs, with notable exceptions like Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish and Brighton chief executive Paul Barber, have publicly stated their positions during ongoing negotiations.
And Neville told the same program he believes it is unfair to leave supporters speculating over the short-term future of the game while the behind-closed-doors discussions continue.
Neville said: “The Premier League have been invisible in these last few weeks, the medical experts in football have been invisible in these last few weeks – there was another way of doing this.
“I think at this moment in time we do need to be communicated to properly as a country as to why it’s safe to return to football – not just the players because the fans want to hear it as well.”
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