Man Utd Under-23s to discover promotion fate

Manchester United Under-23s will find out next week whether they have been promoted back to the top tier of Premier League 2.

Neil Wood’s side enjoyed a good season in division two and were sitting second in the table behind West Ham when the league was halted back in March, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A decision was made at the start of May that the campaign would be suspended indefinitely and an announcement on final standings would be delivered at a future date.

The U-23’s returned to training at the club’s Carrington complex on July 22 while the U-18s, who also saw their league come to an early end, are expected back in small groups on July 29.

The team have started preparing for the new campaign but it is understood they are unhappy at not knowing when games will resume again and what league they will be competing in.

Sources have told Goal that the matter is to be discussed at the Premier League Shareholders meeting on August 6 and it is expected the league will resume on a similar date to the Premier League, which is due to get underway on September 12.

United have spent two seasons in the second tier having been relegated under Ricky Sbragia and despite being second when football was suspended, they are not guaranteed a promotion place. The winners will get automatic promotion while teams ranked second to fifth go into a play-off for the final promotion spot.

It is understood that part of the delay to the decision being made has been down to not wanting to implement a structure that would have had to have been replicated in the Premier League, should England's top flight not have been able to continue.

For example, if a points-per-game model had been implemented there would have been an expectancy to use the same in senior football had the league been suspended before its conclusion.

Premier League resources were also focused on the conclusion of the senior league, with staff who usually work at youth level being redeployed to help with the massive effort of getting the league finished.

With the 2019-20 league campaign having ended on July 26, the focus can now turn to academy football.

It is understood that at the same meeting on August 6 an extra break will be discussed for any English teams who reach the final of European competitions this summer.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are on course for a quarter-final clash in Cologne and, should they reach the Europa League final, they would potentially only have 22 days until the new season resumes.

It is being proposed that any team in that position, be it United or Wolves in the Europa League or Manchester City or Chelsea in the Champions League, will be given a 30-day break before their first game of the new campaign.