Adver Sport imagine one option for what a truncated 2020-21 football season could look like

All sorts of questions hang over what awaits English football when games are able to get going again.

That stands for both finishing this season and what the next could look like, whenever it might be able to start.

The FA’s decision to allow the 2019-20 season to run indefinitely – for professional football at least – was a relief for many, at least for the time being as we wait and see the further impact of the coronavirus crisis on the world.

With less than a quarter of the campaign to go, so much has gone in for it to be consigned to a footnote in the record books, unless we’re left with no other choice.

For Swindon Town’s superb season to date, putting them right in line for one final promotion push, to be deemed null and void would be gut-wrenching.

Similarly for Liverpool to not be crowned Premier League champions would be cruel, given the almost unassailable gap Jurgen Klopp’s men have opened up at the top.

And for team’s struggling at the bottom end of divisions – Stevenage in League Two, or a Southend United or Bolton Wanderers in League One – to be given a reprieve so far adrift of safety would be the ultimate free get out, no matter how much they might want to see that particular scenario play through.

So to play out the remainder of the league campaigns should be the priority if at all possible.

But with competitive football running into June, and quite potentially even beyond, we’re left pondering what next season might look like, crammed into a truncated calendar before the rearranged European Championships.

There has been talk of ditching the League Cup and the EFL Trophy.

That’s a sensible start, but 46 EFL games each is still an awful lot to squeeze in, given the need for plans to be formulated and schedules drawn up after promotion and relegation is signed off.

And don’t forget, teams will need to be recruiting to varying degrees for players lost at the end of contracts (and that in itself is a kettle of fish for another day). That’s difficult to do before you know which division you need to be competing with and how much funding comes with it.

When the FA Women’s Super League switched from a summer to winter calendar in 2017, they played a mini season – the Spring Series – to fill the void.

Each team played their opponents once, with no relegation on the line. We could do that.

I’ve seen the suggestion of fitting one set of games in, then splitting each division into top and bottom and having the relevant teams face each other, a little like the Scottish Premiership season.

But why not rip things up completely for a little one-off fun? Forget promotion, forget relegation for once. Here’s my proposal.

We need fewer games, but we also want to make it mean something.

Let’s take EFL teams – we’ll restrict things to Leagues One and Two for competitive balance – and split them up geographically.

We’ve got 48 teams in those divisions, that’s four groups of 12. Everyone plays each other home and away. 22 games.

What we get out of it is a spicy little mini season, where much of the games have a little bit of edge going for them.

For Town that’d be games home and away against Oxford United and Bristol Rovers. Other West Country teams would bring larger than average away followings. We already know Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City travel well; Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers would have their travelling numbers boosted for a selection of shorter trips.

That means regularly higher attendances and with it more money to make up for a reduced number of matches. And for some of us, a great atmosphere is the best part of a day at the match.

We could go further. When that’s all done you could double down and put on that split-the-league plan afterwards for a few extra games, and also take the top two or so from each region for a winner takes all tournament.

Keep the FA Cup; you’ve got to, it’s a staple. Time for the League Cup? Perhaps, but it’s not vital.

After that we can return to 2021-22 just like a regular season. Back to business.

One danger that might present itself is what happens at the top of the footballing food chain.

If the lower leagues play around with the format so will Europe’s best, and you just know there’ll be some eagerness among them to test out a European Super League style event.

If that goes well – and given that money will be the driver, we all know what the powers that be will conclude their success on – we suddenly end up with a continent-wide revolt and revolution that changes, well, just about everything.

But I don’t want to go into the nitty-gritty, all the ins and outs and consequences because, let’s be honest, this isn’t really going to happen.

We're a long, long way from knowing how the coronavirus pandemic is going to go on for, and really it’s a thought experiment in what fans might want to see in the circumstances, and what’s football without speculation? (Although, EFL, my DMs are open if you want to talk).

Quite what will happen is anyone’s guess.

And now we’re going to open up the question. What would you want to see the 2020-21 season look like?

Do we mix things up? Tweak what we’ve got? Squeeze all the usual stuff into the shorter timeframe?

Let us know in the comments, tweet us at @adversport or email your ideas in to sport@swindonadvertiser.co.uk, we want to hear them!