'I know there are clubs that simply cannot afford to do it' - Bleak warning ahead of crunch League One vote for Sunderland & Co

That’s the view of Lincoln City chief executive Liam Scully ahead of Tuesday’s crunch EFL vote which will see third tier teams vote to either resume or curtail the campaign.

Sunderland’s only chance of winning promotion is if the season restarts but support is waning from other clubs and it is becoming increasingly difficult to see were enough votes will come from to kick-start the season.

If the season is cut short then the table will be decided on an unweighted points-per-game formula to decide promotion and relegation issues.

"We're pretty much out of time if we want to complete on the pitch," Scully told BBC Radio 5Live.

"It is looking more and more unlikely we'll be able to do that.

“The talk of playing on in June, July or even beyond that...I know there are clubs that simply cannot afford to do it.

"As custodians of the game we've got a responsibility to look as fairly as we can at the solutions the EFL has put forward.

"Ultimately the challenge is that we are retrofitting a set of rules in order to get a sporting outcome at a point in time where we've all got some kind of self-interest.

"Our chairman coined a phrase at the beginning of this: we are looking for the fairest of the unfair solutions.

"No matter which way you turn somebody is going to benefit from this and, unfortunately, someone is going to be the victims of this."