No leaderdership, no logic, no urgency - the EFL's handling of this crisis has been shambolic

League One clubs will not vote on the future of their season for at least another 11 days, and the EFL has all-but guaranteed the campaign will be cut short

If ever you plan a drunken get-together in a brewery, please don't leave the arrangements to the EFL.

The Covid-19 crisis has presented football with an unprecedented challenge and the EFL has botched its response every step of the way.

There has been no leadership, no logic, and no sense of urgency.

The Premier League season and the EFL campaign were both suspended on March 13.

Where the EFL are not involved, Premier League teams are already back in limited training and it was announced yesterday that their games will resume on June 17, proving that where there's a will (and a massive pot of money to play for) there's a way.

As for the EFL, it has taken them until today - 78 days since the season was placed on pause - to even announce the date of the vote at which clubs in its three divisions will be asked whether they want to continue.

The EFL board has proposed rule changes that would dictate how the league tables - and the promotion, relegation, and play-off places - would be determined if clubs in any division vote to curtail the season.

That rule change will not be put to the vote until June 8 - another 11 days' time - making a full 89 days in total, or almost three months, since the season was suspended.

Assuming that rule change is approved, only then can each division be asked to vote on whether to play out the remainder of the season or end the campaign early.

Championship clubs have formed a consensus that they want to continue and the vast majority will vote to do so.

League Two clubs have indicated unanimously that they do not want to play on, and will vote that way.

But League One is a different matter.

Clubs there are split with one group, which includes Sunderland, keen to honour their fixtures and another that simply wants to chuck in the towel three-quarters of the way through the season.

This was the moment for the EFL to show leadership by insisting the sporting integrity of the competition must be upheld, fixtures must be fulfilled, and the season completed.

Fat chance.

Instead they have delegated the decision to the clubs, allowing the fate of the season to be decided by a simple majority vote.

Despite paying lip-service to the idea that completing the season was its preferred option, unforgivably the EFL then skewed the vote - firstly by telling clubs how it intended to settle the league table if the season was cut short, and secondly by filibustering until clubs have effectively been left with no choice at all.

Telling the clubs that unweighted points-per-game would be used to decide the season meant each could work out the impact of stopping the season meant for them, and vote accordingly.

Why would top two Coventry City and Rotherham United vote to play on – and risk being caught by the chasing pack – when they are guaranteed automatic promotion under the EFL's back-of-a-fag-packet calculation?

Why would Wycombe vote to play on when they know that if they vote to stop, they will be catapulted from eighth to third, and earn a play-off place as a result?

And at the bottom why would AFC Wimbledon vote to play on knowing that Tranmere Rovers, who will be condemned to relegation under the EFL masterplan, are breathing down their neck just three points behind and with a game in hand of them?

Turkeys do not vote for Christmas.

Instead, any vote should have been held in two stages.

The first should have been a straight choice between play on or stop, with no indication of the outcome if the season was cut short.

Only if the vote is in favour of stopping do you move on to consider how to settle the table, or even to declare the season null and void.

Had Coventry, Rotherham, and Wycombe been left to wonder whether the season might be voided if it ended early, they might well have been keen to continue playing.

Instead, they have absolutely no incentive to play on.

As if that was not bad enough, the EFL have further stacked the deck by dragging their feet for the best part of a month.

EFL chairman Rick Parry told the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, on May 5 that it would take 56 days to play the outstanding fixtures this season, and "realistically" the season would have to be completed by July 31 to avoid major problems with player contracts.

We now know that a vote on whether to continue playing will not take place until Monday, June 8 - just 54 days before the deadline Parry set for completion.

Given that almost all players in League One have been furloughed for financial reasons, and that it will take at least two, and preferably three, weeks for them to return to training and get up to speed before playing matches again, there is no chance that the season could be resumed and then completed by the end of July.

The EFL has procrastinated until there is only one viable option left on the table – namely, to end the season early.

If there were any floating voters weighing up whether to play on or stop, and there were thought to be a couple, the fact that they have now run out of time will have made up their minds for them.

The whole process has been a shambles from start to finish – an object lesson in incompetence.

This Covid-19 crisis will change all of our lives in all kinds of ways, and usher in what has been dubbed the 'new normal'.

Let us hope that extends to football and the EFL.

Because from a governance point of view, the new normal could not be worse than the old.