The Premier League wants the remaining games from this season to be played, after they were suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak, Brighton Chief Executive Paul Barber has revealed.

Barber appeared on special edition of the BBC show Football Focus to discuss the current state of the League and any possible next steps and spoke about the meeting that took place yesterday, during which the decision to suspend this season was made.

As well as saying the preference was for the games to take place at some stage, he also claimed that the decision to suspend the league was unanimous and that a 22-team Premier League could take place next season, with no one from the current division relegated and the top two teams from the Championship promoted.

In a revealing discussion, Barber answered a number of questions frankly and honestly, as he tried to give as much insight as he could into the current situation.

"Yes it was [unanimous]. I think it was absolutely the right thing to do and at this time, we’ve got it prioritise people’s health," he said.

"As much as we all love football and as much as we wanted 30,000 people at the AMEX today to play Arsenal, it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do and it isn’t the right thing to do at this time.”

The league will meet again on Thursday to discuss the fallout of a UEFA meeting taking place two days prior, which is expected to see this summer's European Championships pushed back another year.

The Seagulls' CEO admitted that he is expecting the amount of work to be done between now and the agreed return date of April 3, as well as the trajectory of the pandemic, to mean that this season is further postponed well beyond its initial target.

“There’s probably about 200-300 things on this list that we’re working through to try and prepare ourselves for every eventuality," he said.

"Our priority and the Premier League’s priority is to play out the remainder of the season, that’s what we all want, that’s what the fans want and it’s what the clubs want. But we also have to be realistic, we really don’t know where this virus is heading, where we will be on the 4th April, when we intend to start playing games, and whether we can complete the fixture list.

“We’ve got to look at every eventuality, we’ve got to think about people, about the players and our coaches, but we’ve also got to think about the fans coming to the stadium and how they get to the stadium, usually through public transport, and therefore all the implications of that as well."

With West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady suggesting the league should be voided from this point, the future of this season is clearly proving to be a divisive topic for some people within the league.

However, Barber insisted this was not a direction that the league itself was interested in heading in and that he feels it would be "unjust" for Liverpool to not be awarded the title this season.

He also understands the implications for those at the bottom who could be relegated and subsequently miss out on vital money, a fate they might have avoided had the nine remaining games been allowed to take place in some capacity.

"We don’t want to go down this option because every league starts with an expectation of completing all the fixtures and we really want to be able to do that," he said.

"Our intention must be to try and complete matches but we’ve got to put people’s health first. At the moment, it’s really hard to imagine putting on a football game in the Premier League in two or three weeks time. It’s hard to imagine that given the scenario that we are in.

"If we were to freeze the league, then for me it would be incredibly unjust for Liverpool not to be awarded the title because I think everybody in the game appreciates what a fantastic season they’ve had and what a wonderful team they are. But equally, it would be incredibly unjust for teams to be relegated when there is still games to play and the financial consequences of that are difficult, and it’s equally unjust for Leeds and West Brom to not be promoted because we know how hard it is to get out of the Championship, we know how hard it is for teams to even get to this stage of the season in the top two.”

One solution to this problem could be to allow Leeds and West Brom to join the Premier League as a 22-club division next season, which Barber said is something which is being considered.

“I think that is a possible option," he said.

"To leave the 20 teams in the Premier League as it is would obviously help us and would help others, but to bring the top two teams from the Championship up, give us a larger league for next season, perhaps four relegation spots next season, and then two up again to get the league back to 20 for the following season, it has some merit.

“Clearly there’s a number of details in there that would have to be worked through and a number of issues that would have to be worked through, not least the qualification for European competition places, but we are in an unprecedented time and we may need an unprecedented solution for this particular problem.”

Another problem to be considered by the league is that of player contracts, many of which will end on June 30 this season.

With some estimates suggesting the peak of the outbreak won't arrive until mid-June it is safe to assume that the league would have to be pushed back beyond that date, meaning some clubs may be without players and some players may be without clubs.

What's more, the transfer window is scheduled to open on Monday, May 18, so technically players could move from one club to another before this season is completed.

“Player contracts come into it because most of those will expire in one form or another on the 30th June," said Barber.

"Or at least that would be the natural break in many contracts, so if we extended the season into July, August or even further, what would be the implications of that?

“Would we have the same squads? Will we have different squads? Would players be able to move teams within that time? There are so many implications from delaying the season beyond a certain point and it may get to a point where we have to be pragmatic, we have to be sensible, we have to ask everyone for their understanding and cooperation.

“But as I said before, the most important thing in all of this is that we put people’s health first. We’ve also got to put ourselves in a situation where we’re not relying on emergency services to attend stadiums behind closed doors when they could be needed elsewhere in the community.”

With the EFL also suspending football until the same date, Barber was asked about the financial situation of some lower league clubs who depend on match-day revenue to fund their operations and whether or not the Premier League would be able to help support those clubs.

He admitted that while that is something to consider in the future, at the moment it was not a priority for discussion.

"Obviously, we’re in an unprecedented situation where we haven’t got down to the level of detail, that’s a decision we’d have to take to get to," he said.

“At the moment, we’re really focused on how we can contain the virus, how we can keep our people fit and well, then we can have a look again in a couple of weeks at where we are.

“In the meantime, we’ve got several teams who have got players in self isolation, which makes it difficult for them to think about the 4th April because they’ve not just got to self isolate for 14 days, they’ve then got to get themselves to match fitness again, which could take another seven to 14 days.

“We’ve got a number of complexities here which go way beyond thinking of the finances. It’s important but we’ve got to think about the here and now.”