Liverpool legend: For the integrity of football, it's important the 2019-20 season is concluded.
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Liverpool legend: For the integrity of football, it's important the 2019-20 season is concluded.

Updated: Apr 16, 2020

Liverpool must win the Premier League title mathematically, according to Ex-England international John Banes.

It is not the first time John Barnes has said the Premier League season must be concluded.
It is not the first time John Barnes has said the Premier League season must be concluded.

Liverpool legend John Barnes insists the 2019-20 campaign must be finished before his former side are handed the Premier League title. Jurgen Klopp's Reds are 25 points above second-placed Manchester City and need only two wins to be crowned champions. Majority have suggested the season should be voided and a few say the Merseyside club should be handed the title without completing the season. But, Barnes, who won three league titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup during his 10-year spell at Anfield, says for the 'integrity' of the game the football authorities in England must find a way to complete the season. The 56-year-old told BonusCodeBets: “A lot of people are looking at it quite binary saying: ‘Liverpool should just be given the league title’ because they’re 25 points ahead. But for the integrity of football it is important that the season must be finished.


"I’m not just talking about the Premier League, but also promotion and relegation from The Championship, promotion and relegation from League One and so on and so forth. "It’s ridiculous, you can’t just ignore three quarters of a season! “You can’t just award Liverpool the league title without promotion or relegation taking place. It’s wrong. "You have to honour the league which means that the bottom three have to go down, the top three have to come up from The Championship, bottom three go down from there and then the same with League One. "It wouldn’t make sense (to award Liverpool the title) because a team in The Championship might say, ‘Well we were 15 points ahead, why aren’t we getting promoted?’ “It’s not a binary choice to say give them the championship and we’ll sort everything else; you can’t do that! I don’t see why you cannot finish the season. "Even if we play football in three months, six months, 10 months’ time or even a year. We have nine games to play and these must be honoured – we then start the next season two or three months later.


"Obviously in an ideal world you’d like to start the season in August and finish in May, but in these unprecedented times we may have to start playing again in August and finish in October, two months off until next season in January or maybe February." The former Newcastle star added: “Maybe we scrap the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions’ League so we all catch up, that way we can get the way back to August and play from then until May next season. "It’s opening up a can of worms to try and start over again, and I don’t see why we are so worried about the following season. Completing this season is the most important thing to do. "For the integrity of football all the way down, it is so important the season is concluded."




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