BRADFORD City’s director of communications, Ryan Sparks, believes the League Two season has come to a “sensible conclusion”, after clubs voted to formally end it yesterday afternoon.

Swindon will go up as champions, alongside Crewe and Plymouth, Cheltenham, Northampton, Exeter and Colchester will compete in the play-offs, while Stevenage will be relegated in last place, unless Macclesfield are deducted further points over missed player payments.

Sparks admitted that thoughts are now turning to next season and while he feels that City are in a better financial position than some, he hopes playing in front of fans is possible soon, given an absence of revenue since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Discussing yesterday’s vote, Sparks said: “We’re relieved and I think it was a sensible conclusion, given where the game is at and the financial pressures it faces.

“It’s fair to say that the alternative proposals from Barnsley, Tranmere, Stevenage and Ipswich were rejected in favour of the EFL’s framework (of using unweighted points per game to decide promotion, relegation and four team play-offs).

“We were a bit surprised Lincoln’s didn’t go through (applying any points deductions after PPG had been calculated) though.

“They didn't stand to benefit from it, so credit to them for that, but we also felt that was the correct equation and it was a bit concerning some clubs didn’t seem to understand the maths of that.

“But it was more than fair in the end. The integrity of competition in League Two has not been harmed that much.

“The EFL stayed close to the rule book but still allowed clubs to have their say.

“Tranmere (who have now been officially relegated from League One) and Stevenage can have no complaints. They were the most vocal in the meetings I attended and were more than heard, but they couldn’t convince people with their proposals.”

Sparks said it would have been good to focus on next season earlier, given that an indicative vote a few weeks ago showed that League Two clubs wanted to curtail the current campaign then.

Now that 2020/21 has finally become the priority, Sparks discussed how City might cope going forward.

He said: “The finances of it all are not straightforward, as is the case for any business with zero income.

“You could say it was our fault for taking season tickets off sale, but we didn’t think it was fair to have products on sale that didn’t actually exist (given we don't know when fans can attend next season).

“The supporters have said they want to keep supporting us regardless and we want to be able to offer them a tangible product at the end of all this.”

Sparks added: “We’ve got through this so far by spending every single day looking at finances.

“Some clubs are in grave danger of going out of business. We’re not one of those, but then again, we don’t really want to start again behind closed doors, as it doesn’t help anyone not having revenue coming in.

“We’re still waiting on streaming, as that could bring in revenue for all clubs. You’d think that would be the next step for the EFL to focus on.”

Finally, Sparks said: “We’re working through these challenging times, but we’re happy to be judged on how we get through this crisis, not what we say about it.

“If we can come out well from this, we hope supporters will feel we’ve done all we can.”