Six League One clubs - including Sunderland - speak out about ending season early

Bottomley's comments brought a joint response from Fleetwood, Ipswich, Oldham, Peterborough, Portsmouth, and Sunderland, posted on social media by Peterborough owner Darragh MacAnthony.

"We as a collective are United in our goal to finish this season," MacAnthony wrote. "We have no desire for voiding the season, PPG scenario's/letting a computer decide our footballing fate.

"For our fans/staff & for the integrity of our sport we are all looking forward to completing our pending Fixtures/season under guidance from the EFL at a time it is deemed safe to do so. Thank you for your time."

The teams involved are all in the top half of the League One standings, from Oxford in third to Ipswich in 10th.

The post came hours after Bottomley told the PA news agency that time had effectively run out to complete the season by July 31.

The English Football League advised its 71 clubs on Wednesday evening that they should not return to training until May 25 at the earliest, which Bottomley said meant completing the fixture list was no longer possible.

"Our view now is that you have to end the season," he told the PA news agency.

"The key date all along for the last five weeks has been May 18. If players could return to training then, there was a chance to conclude the season by the end of July, which is what the EFL wanted to do to avoid the issues of players out of contract.

"Even that was going to be difficult because a player's contract ends at the end of June, but the case has always been that unless that player finds another club you have to pay them to the end of July. So the last four weeks is almost like a redundancy payment effectively.

"The word that has been bandied from the start by (EFL chairman) Rick Parry is integrity of the competition. I think integrity goes out the window on August 1 because all the players are gone."