Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor discusses consistency over the restart of football as Premier League announce June 17 return date

National League clubs are still awaiting clarity on how the 2019-20 campaign will be concluded despite it being almost six weeks since the decision to cancel all remaining fixtures.

Promotions and relegations remain up in the air with a decision regarding whether the play-offs will still go ahead expected in the coming weeks.

The National League board is currently waiting for the EFL to make a decision with clubs meeting on June 8 to finalise how they intend to finish the campaign.

The Premier League and Championship plan to restart later this month while League One remains undecided and League Two clubs intend to decide the table on a points-per-game basis.

The National League would only be able to go ahead with the play-offs if a club is relegated from League Two.

And while Challinor believes there should be consistency through the divisions, he doesn’t expect there to be.

“It should be consistent throughout but we’ve got to be realistic around where we’re at,” admitted the Pools boss.

“The Premier League is the richest league in the world and there are 20 teams. I read something the other day that to finish the remaining games with the amount of testing they’d have to do, it would cost £4m in testing which is nothing to the Premier League especially when you look at the money that gets thrown about.

“It becomes a no brainer if you’re able to spend £4 million on testing providing it doesn’t take any away from more important sources, that you get it finished and the Premier League can quite easily quarantine and be able to keep their players together for a month to be able to finish it.

“In the Championship, something similar could potentially happen because of the financial rewards of being promoted from the Championship. I’m sure there would be issues if that division couldn’t be finished.

“But the further you go down, I think it becomes less and less of a loss if you like.”

According to the Hartlepool manager, fundamental differences between the Premier League and National League will prevent any form of consistency regarding a restart.

Premier League players have already returned to training while Pools have just eight contracted players as it stands.

“The teams at the top of their leagues, whether it be the Championship, League One, Two or the National League, deserve to get promoted,” Challinor added.

“But as much as you do want clarity and consistency right down, we’re at a time where that’s not going to happen.

“The Premier League use VAR and goal-line technology and we’re playing the same game five leagues down but no one would think we should be given those things so we have to be realistic about the situation we’re in and think about what the best solutions are.”