Fermanagh and Western Football League Chairman Neil Jardine says that if the Fermanagh and Western Football League is unable to reach a conclusion due to the current Coronavirus crisis then the season will be declared null and void.

Jardine though states that everything will be done to try and conclude the campaign and is hopeful that the season will be completed, stressing that they could extend it into the summer to get it finished.

There has been a precedent set in the matter of not finishing a season with the 2000/01 season not completed due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak.

“If we can’t complete the season, which is just one of the scenarios, then it will be null and void and the teams would start the new season in the same division they are in now. The year that we had to stop it because of foot and mouth the league was just declared null and void and not completed. We seen that we weren’t going to be able to complete the league and we made the call.

“You can’t just say hand the title to whoever is top because mathematically they could still be caught. Also, you have to deal with everything else like relegation and promotion in all the divisions if you made that decision and there are teams who have played less games than others so you just couldn’t make that call,” he explained.

The Fermanagh and Western season was suspended until April 4 at the earliest last Friday and with the situation on going it is not expected to return any time soon.

Jardine believes though that if they can get back on the pitch by early to mid May then there is every chance that they will be able to get the remainder of the season run off.

“You just have to assess things and see if you can get an idea of when we can get back playing. It’s all hypothetical at the minute but if it does resume it is a given that there will be an extension to the season and you could see then games going on to towards the end of June.

“If, say, you started back on Saturday May 9 and with an extension to the end of June that would give us eight working dates plus midweeks so in essence you would have 16 fixture dates available which would more than finish off both the league season and the cups. I think the most any team has left is nine league games.

“All that we can do is tell the clubs, supporters and people who follow the game that once we get an idea as to when, or if, we can restart we will very quickly have a fixtures meeting and we will know what can be logically fitted in,” he added.

And a late finish to the season might then lead to the start of the next campaign being pushed back.

“If it was the case that we finished at the end of June, say, then do you still start the 2020/21 season on the third Saturday in August or do you give people a break and start later? The other way of looking at it is that there is a chance that we may have had a break for six weeks so we just start the new season as normal.

“These though are just things that have to be considered, you can’t say this is what will happen or won’t happen because you just don’t know and that’s the key thing at the minute,” he said.

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