EFL Championship aims to restart June 20
June 1, 2020
The Championship, the second-highest overall league in the English Football League (EFL) system, is set to resume its season on June 20th. All games have been suspended since March 8th because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The EFL said the date was “provisional” and “subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met”.
There are 108 matches remaining, plus the play-off semi-finals and final. The EFL said it is aiming to complete the Championship season with the play-off final “on or around July 30th”.
“Following Saturday’s announcement by the government to allow elite sporting events to return behind closed doors, the EFL has this weekend agreed to a provisional restart date of the weekend of 20 June 2020 for matches in the Sky Bet Championship,” an EFL statement read.
EFL chair Rick Parry said: “We must stress that at this stage the date is only provisional and will only be confirmed once we have met all the requirements, as the health, safety and wellbeing of all participants, staff and supporters remains our top priority. Clearly completing the season in a safe manner is going to require a significant effort by all concerned and, whilst not unprecedented, it will need clubs to play a significant number of matches over a relatively short period of time.”
In the UK, live Championship games are exclusively shown on Sky, whilst a highlights show is shown on Discovery’s Quest channel.