Former Liverpool midfielder John Barnes has insisted that the Reds should not just be handed the Premier League title without the season reaching a natural conclusion.
Jurgen Klopp's side currently find themselves 25 points clear at the top of the table and have all but sealed their first first league title triumph in 30 years, with them in need of just six more points to mathematically get the job done.
The former England midfielder, who spent 10 years playing for the Anfield club, however, believes that Liverpool should not just be handed the Premier League title because of their superior lead at the top of the table, insisting that the integrity of the entire football pyramid is at stake.
Barnes told BonusCodeBets: "A lot of people are looking at it quite binary saying: 'Liverpool should just be given the league title' because they're 25 points ahead. But for the integrity of football it is important that the season must be finished.
"I'm not just talking about the Premier League, but also promotion and relegation from the Championship, promotion and relegation from League One and so on and so forth.
"It's ridiculous, you can't just ignore three quarters of a season.
“You can't just award Liverpool the league title without promotion or relegation taking place. It's wrong.
"You have to honour the league which means that the bottom three have to go down, the top three have to come up from the Championship, bottom three go down from there and then the same with League One.
"It wouldn't make sense [to award Liverpool the title] because a team in the Championship might say, 'Well we were 15 points ahead, why aren't we getting promoted?'"
With Premier League bosses set to meet with the division's 20 clubs on Friday, Barnes has made it very clear that the season must be finished.
"It's not a binary choice to say give them the championship and we'll sort everything else; you can't do that," he continued. "I don't see why you cannot finish the season.
"Even if we play football in three months, six months, 10 months' time or even a year. We have nine games to play and these must be honoured – we then start the next season two or three months later.
"Obviously in an ideal world you'd like to start the season in August and finish in May, but in these unprecedented times we may have to start playing again in August and finish in October, two months off until next season in January or maybe February.”
In a bid to ensure that the football season sticks to its usual calendar, Barnes says the option of scrapping both domestic and European club competitions may have to be on the agenda ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
The former Liverpool man added: "Maybe we scrap the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League so we all catch up, that way we can get the way back to August and play from then until May next season.
"It's opening up a can of worms to try and start over again, and I don't see why we are so worried about the following season. Completing this season is the most important thing to do.
"For the integrity of football all the way down, it is so important the season is concluded.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com