The Football Association has told the Premier League clubs that the 2019-20 season must be settled by “sporting merit”, potentially splitting the six bottom clubs over how to finish the season.

It means that issues like relegation, top four and the title must be settled by either playing the remaining fixtures, or a mathematical formula based on games played, with a weighted points-per-game under consideration.

Voiding the season remains completely off the table.

The announcement marked the first time that the possibility of curtailing the season was discussed at a Premier League meeting, but that is still just a contingency plan, as the primary aim is to complete the fixture list.

The competition will go back to government on the possibility of using their own stadiums, however, as the majority of clubs have asked to push the issue of neutral venues to the limit. All would naturally prefer to play their games in the restarted season at home, but many accept it is unlikely to be possible. It is an issue that has naturally exercised the clubs at the bottom most, given it could influence relegation.

The announcement from the FA came at the very start of Monday’s crunch videoconference, and immediately took some of the expected tension out of the meeting. The Independent has been told that the FA’s hand was forced by the amount of politicking over ‘Project Restart’ in the last few weeks, and felt the need to act.

The governing body’s board came to unanimous agreement on the decision.

It effectively means it is now in the interest of the bottom three clubs – Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Norwich City – to play the remaining fixtures, regardless of the conditions, as they would be more likely to get relegated in the event of a mathematical formula being used. That is not the case for those above, and means the bottom six could be split.

That group of clubs had recently been unified in their opposition to playing in neutral grounds, even though that had been a non-negotiable government condition on getting back playing. It led to suspicion among some figures in the game that the bottom six were playing for time, especially since Uefa have set a 25 May deadline for decisions on how to complete the league.

The FA announcement has negated that and ensured there are now only two possibilities: play out the season, or settle it in another manner.

Such suspicions had meant many expected a fractious videoconference, but the decision took much tension away.

That same tension may well eventually rise again depending on the mathematical formula used in the event the season is curtailed, though.

The Premier League would consider a variety of different models, but an issue is they have different outcomes. If it was purely points-per-game, for example, Bournemouth would go down. If it was weighted points-per-game – like some extrapolation of home and away fixtures – West Ham United would go down. The latter could also see Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal switch places.

On a video press conference after Monday meeting, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was keen to point out this remains a last resort.

“It was the first time we discussed curtailment – it’s still our aim to finish the season obviously but it’s important to discuss all the options with our clubs. Obviously we reflected on [the prime minister’s] statement last night and the fuller statement that came out right at the end of the meeting and what that means for us.”

As regards neutral stadiums, an issue which has proven a potential stumbling block to ‘Project Restart’ due to the wide disagreement on it, Masters said they would at least continue consultations.

“Just to reiterate that, I think everybody would prefer to play home and away if at all possible. And I think it’s clear to see that some clubs feel more strongly about that than others. It is an ongoing dialogue and obviously we’ve been talking to  - since Covid-19 became an issue – we’ve been talking to the authorities about the conditions in which we could get the Premier League back up and running and taking all that advice on board. But it is an ongoing dialogue.

“There is not much I can say about that, other than we are in contact with the authorities and listening to that advice while also representing club views in those discussions.

“Those are future conversations we may need to have. There was a desire to see all the different implications; the adaptions, if you like, to the Premier League model as we know in order to play out the season and then discuss what the fairest way forward is.”

Masters similarly revealed that there would be meetings with players and club staff this week to discuss safety concerns. Many club employees up to now had questioned why so many discussions had been taken without yet consulting those actually involved.

“No decisions will be made until after we have talked to players and managers and those meetings are scheduled for later this week,” Masters said.

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