A SHIFT of the goalposts looms and Paul Barber will not have it.
Brighton’s chief executive is leading the fightback against the proposal that Premier League clubs complete their pandemic-hit season by playing at neutral grounds.
He deems it unfair and would be a fundamental changing of the rules midway through the campaign.
And the ex-FA hotshot claims there are more than just the relegation-threatened clubs who feel this way, rejecting talk of a Big Six v Bottom Six scenario.
Barber points to Germany, whose Bundesliga clubs are set to return to play at their home grounds next week, and asks if they can do it, why can’t we?
While he brands any prospect of a club being relegated from the top flight with a season unfinished as “inconceivable”.
The most vocal Prem chief during the Covid-19 crisis said: “Our focus is about finishing the season fair and square, on the basis on which we started it.
“If, at the end of that, we happen to be one of the three worst teams, we’re relegated. We accept and understand that.
“But what we can’t accept is a fundamental change to the competition three-quarters of the way through.
“That is not fair and there is absolutely nobody who will convince me otherwise.” Barber sees that lack of fairness extending to all clubs, not just his own.
He cites 19th-placed Aston Villa, who have six home games still to play — one more than Brighton, who sit two points above the drop zone.
Barber remains baffled as to how neutral venues became the seemingly preferred way forward in the first place.
It reached the point this week where LMA chief Richard Bevan claimed the season could be CANCELLED if clubs cannot come to agreement over playing away from their homes.
Yet Barber feels that if the logic behind it is the fear of fans congregating outside grounds, then rule-flouting supporters looking to do that would not be put off by having to travel a few hundred miles.
He backs his staff to make the Amex Stadium operationally safe and secure — just as Bundesliga clubs are being trusted to do.
Barber said: “The Germans are managing to restart their season playing at their home grounds. Are we so concerned about our situation that we couldn’t manage our grounds in the same way?
“We’re used to managing our grounds and understand how they work.
“The stadium is already operating as a Covid-19 testing centre, which is entirely secure and safe for everyone working there, so I would back us to do that and I trust our fans to stay away. All of the things in terms of operational, commercial, health and safety, I think we can manage ourselves.
“I don’t see why we can’t. If Germany can, why can’t we?”
It emerged in last Friday’s Premier League meeting that neutral venues have become a serious option.
Though Barber revealed those clubs that oppose it do not solely come from the bottom third of the table.
He explained: “There are genuine concerns at all levels of the league about neutral venues.
“So the way some people have painted it as the bottom six versus the rest are misguided and wrong.”
Brighton have home games against Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City among their final nine league fixtures. Barber added: “In our case we have got four of the six biggest clubs in Europe at our ground and traditionally we have done OK against them.
“It’s not just about the crowd — we have spent tens of millions of pounds on our training ground to replicate the stadium conditions as best as we can.
“All of that is designed to maximise whatever home advantage you can gain.
“To simply strip that away three-quarters of the way through the season seems unfair.
“We can’t support something that is going to put our club at a disadvantage.”
Barber echoed Villa chief executive Christian Purslow’s comments that relegation during the coronavirus crisis would be a financial “catastrophe”.
But Brighton would be able to accept that devastating blow if they ended up in the bottom three having completed the campaign in its normal manner, albeit without fans.
What Barber and his club could not stomach is dropping out of the league with the campaign unfinished.
He added: “For us, it would be inconceivable that a club would be relegated with the season incomplete.
“We did not sign up to play 29 games. We did not sign up to play 38, imbalanced between home and away games.
“We would not expect any teams in the Premier League to be relegated if the games were not completed.”
