Ipswich Town’s season is over after ‘overwhelming majority’ of League One clubs vote to end campaign
A decision has been made on the fare of the League One season. Picture: PA - Credit: Archant
Ipswich Town’s season is now officially over.
After weeks of discussion, today’s meetings between the EFL and its member clubs has led to the League One campaign being curtailed early.
The first meeting of the day, involving all 71 clubs from the three EFL divisions, decided how the final standings would be decided before a second, held between League One clubs only, ultimately saw a majority of third tier clubs vote to end the season now.
Ipswich have always maintained a desire to continue the season in full when it’s safe to do so and voted accordingly, but the required 51% majority needed to end the season now was achieved.
Final standings will now be decided using the EFL’s preferred framework, which sees placings decided using a straight points-per-game (PPG) formula, the top two promoted, the next four clubs contest the play-offs and the bottom three relegated.
MORE: Clubs vote in EFL plan to end season using points-per-game... with no expanded play-offs
Ipswich, who drop to 11th using PPG, had proposed a consultation on expanding the play-offs but that did not achieve enough support as the EFL’s plan was voted through.
In League One, Coventry and Rotherham are now promoted to the Championship, leaving Wycombe, Oxford, Portsmouth and Fleetwood to contest the play-offs. Tranmere, who put forward their own proposals to apply a margin-for-error system when it comes to promotion and relegation, now head to League Two alongside Southend and Bolton.
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A short statement from the EFL reads: “League One clubs have voted by an overwhelming majority to formally end the 2019/20 season.
“As a result, the final League standings have now been confirmed meaning that Coventry City have been confirmed as champions with Rotherham United securing the second automatic promotion place to the Championship.
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“Wycombe Wanderers, Oxford United, Portsmouth and Fleetwood Town will contest the play-offs with the schedule to be announced in due course, while Tranmere Rovers, Southend United and Bolton Wanderers will start the 2020/21 season in League Two.”
League Two also opted to end their season early, with Swindon Town, Crewe Alexandra and Plymouth Argyle winning automatic promotion and Cheltenham, Exeter, Colchester and Northampton entering the play-offs.
Ipswich’s drop below Gillingham to 11th represents the club’s lowest finish since the end of the 1952/53 season and comes at the end of a campaign where the Blues topped the table for much of the first three months and did so again as recently as mid-January.
However, Paul Lambert’s side were on a run of one win in nine prior to football’s suspension in the middle of March, having lost their last four games.
