Question Number: 33284

Other 4/29/2019

RE: Adult

Dennis Verlander of Crawley, West Sussex UK asks...

If a Football League 2 team leave before completion of the season what occurs to the points of the remaining teams ?

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

Dennis we are a referee information site in the LOTG not a general question site!
from our pitch to your pitch in the spirit of Fair Play

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Dennis
While as Mr Ref states the site answers referee questions I had occasion to look at this on another subject and the answer can be found in the following excerpts from the EFL Rule book which I quote

12.2
Cessation of membership. If a Club (or Clubs) ceases to be a member of The League for any reason (including, without limitation, pursuant to Article 4 of the Articles of Association or by way of relegation or expulsion for disciplinary reasons):
12.2.1
during any Normal Playing Season, its playing record shall be expunged and the number of relegation places from the relevant Division for that Season shall be reduced by the number of Clubs ceasing to be members;
12.2.2
during the period between the end of the Normal Playing Season and the conclusion of the last Play-Off Match for that Season, its playing record shall not be expunged but the number of relegation places from the relevant Division for that Season shall be reduced by the number of Clubs ceasing to be members; or
12.2.3
during the period between the conclusion of the last Play-Off Match and the start of the following Season, its playing record shall not be expunged but the number of relegation places from the Division in which a Club would have played but for its cessation of membership, shall be reduced by the number of Clubs ceasing to be members and, during that Season, the relevant Division shall operate with a reduced number of Clubs. **

So I read from the rule is that if a team was to cease to continue at this time in the FL its full playing record would be removed from the League table and the relegation number would be reduced by one team so only two clubs would be relegated. If the team gets to the end of the season then the results for the team would stand yet the number of relegation places would be reduced so that the number of teams would still remain the same for next season. I hope that helps