EPL season must be completed: Former FA chairman Greg Dyke
Former English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke said it would be nonsensical for the English Premier League to abandon the current season and void the league standings, arguing it would lead to huge financial losses.
The EPL has been suspended until at least April 4, following an emergency meeting sparked by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta testing positive for the coronavirus last week.
EPL chiefs and clubs will meet to discuss the options this week.
There has been much debate over the future of the season, particularly after the vice-chairman of relegation-threatened West Ham United, Karren Brady, said the season should be declared "null and void" in her column for The Sun.
Former Liverpool players Kenny Dalglish and Jamie Carragher hit out at her comments, although she later clarified that the Reds "deserve to win the title" but her views were on the grounds of "safety".
Current FA boss Greg Clarke told The Times last weekend that he did not think the season would be completed.
But his predecessor Dyke said scrapping the season would prove costly for the FA, thanks to unpaid broadcast fees and lawsuits from clubs, and said the EPL could take advantage of the likely cancellation of Euro 2020 to play into August.
"You might have to play behind closed doors to fulfil the contracts for the broadcasters, otherwise they're not going to pay up and that could mean hundreds of millions of pounds. You may even have to play three matches a week to get them done," Dyke told The Times.
"I can see if you are a Norwich fan or of a team like West Ham, you might be delighted if the season was cancelled. At a club like Leeds (top of the second tier), fans would go nuts.
"You can also imagine clubs taking legal action."
However, leading sports lawyer Richard Cramer believes that if the EPL does not resume by June, the season will have to be cancelled.
He told Sky Sports: "If we go through to May or June, then I think it's almost inevitable that, it's almost the equivalent of what happened in the world wars, the season just has to be cancelled."
For former Liverpool favourite Robbie Fowler, however, the Reds are already EPL champions.
He wrote in his Daily Mirror column: "For anyone arguing that - Liverpool shouldn't be champions if the season isn't completed, then look at their record...
"They are the worthiest of champions. It's the greatest season ever in top-flight English football history. They are record-breakers, and they are arguably the best team to have won the Premier League. And, yes, I'm saying they've won it."
However, his former England teammate Alan Shearer argued in his column for The Sun: "If the season cannot be completed, then there is no way you can have a winner or loser.
"As harsh and as horrible as that would be for some clubs, none more so than Liverpool, it is the only outcome.
"I cannot see how it would be fair to hand them the title - despite the fact it is obvious nobody is going to catch them."
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