THE Championship is planning for a return to action before the Premier League, with June 6 earmarked.

While the Project Restart talks with the Premier League and government continue, the EFL is understood to be close to agreeing a return for the second tier in English football.

Leagues One and Two are likely to be declared null and void at a meeting of clubs today, but the Championship, with the riches promotion to the Premier League brings, aims to resume.

The National League has already called a halt to its season, but has yet to announce how the final placings will be determined.

UEFA has imposed a deadline of May 25 for European leagues to confirm plans to restart or cancel the current season.

Talks involving the EFL and the league's 71 clubs continue, and the EFL board met on Wednesday, with League One and Two having play-off issues to contend with as well as a decision on how the final table will be determined, with points per game an option.

Covid-19 testing, plans for returning to training and how fixtures will be staged is yet to be confirmed and once they are in place, preparations will be stepped up for a return to action next month.

There are nine games to play for each side this season, meaning 108 games remain outstanding, with the play-offs to be added to the tally.

Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber feels promotion to the Premier League should be scrapped if Championship clubs fail to complete their season.

Webber insists the Canaries will not accept a scenario in which they finish the campaign and are relegated, only to be replaced by the likes of Leeds or West Brom whose season has been prematurely curtailed.

Webber told the Sky Sports Football Show: “What we could not accept is a situation where we play all our games and get relegated, but the Championship can’t play, and they automatically promote some teams who haven’t finished the season.

“For anyone who has got promoted from the Championship, it is a 46 or 49 game slog. It needs to be settled on the pitch – both coming up and going down.”

Serie A clubs are working towards a restart date of June 13 but the plan hinges on convincing the Italian government to soften its quarantine rules.

Top-flight clubs issued a statement concerning their restart plans, as they seek to complete the 2019-20 campaign which was suspended in March due to the pandemic.

Italy, and in particular the region of Lombardy, suffered significantly from the Covid-19 outbreak.

Team training has been given the go-ahead to return on Monday, and now Serie A clubs have a season start date to work to.

However, the Italian federation’s medical committee is seeking an amendment to government protocol which states that an entire squad must be quarantined for 14 days in the event of a single player or staff member testing positive.

If the positive finding occurred once action has resumed, it would also mean the team’s last opponents having to isolate as well, conditions which would almost certainly make it impossible for the competition to go ahead.

A number of teams still have 13 games left to play, with the target season end date understood to be August 2.