It was, in many ways, always going to end like this. A battle between top and bottom, the haves and have-nots; those who view concluding the season in terms of its financial advantage, those who see it as an existential threat.
At Friday's Premier League meeting the differences were made very clear. Elite clubs are pressing for resumption because they have contracts that deliver based on success, on trophies, on European qualification, on a top-four finish. That is understandable.
Yet, equally, others fear a fickle relegation. A season that starts, just as suddenly stops, and is then decided by the most arbitrary means.