West Brom’s imminent future may be out of their control after Express & Star reporter Joseph Masi provided worrying insight into the current situation facing the club, and their Championship rivals.

What’s been said?

Speaking on this week’s Baggies Broadcast podcast, the ever-reliable Albion scribe hinted that despite the EFL meeting later today, the ultimate decision over promotion – something that will certainly affect Leeds at this current stage, too – will lie with the Premier League.

Masi (19:26) said:

“The real interesting thing with the Premier League and the EFL is that they are two separate entities. Okay, in any normal year, the teams first and second will go into the Premier League but the Premier League is a different body, it’s run by different people – it is essentially a closed shop. If they want to close that league, they can close it. And that is the issue.”

He then posed the question of the ruling that suggests a season can be declared over after 35 matches have been played, claiming that although it was right, it would still come down to English football’s top guns.

Masi added:

“The problem is, the Premier League do not have to take Leeds and Albion. It is their league, they can do what they want with it. For me, that isn’t right but that is the way it works.”

Premier League hold the keys

Therefore, if Masi’s comments are true and accurate, there could soon be a massive can of worms opened, so much so that both West Brom and Leeds would have to become allies off the pitch rather than title rivals on it.

The EFL could effectively declare the season over, handing promotion to the top two teams, but that’ll only work out in their favour if the Premier League agree to it – with their meeting coming later this week on Thursday.

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They may not want to relegate their teams or even consider a 22-team top-flight division next term. They may not want the season to continue at all. All of this remains to be seen for the time being.

It means that the Baggies are powerless in deciding the fate they have worked ever so tirelessly for this campaign. It would be a cruel blow for the west Midlands outfit to get to this stage – being six points clear of the playoffs with only nine games remaining – to then have their end goal dragged away from them like taking candy from a baby.

And in other news, West Brom need more than just Karlan Grant this summer…