Lincoln game to be replayed in full.

The EFL could decide to not replay the game, but only in exceptional circumstances.  A couple of examples are the Bradford City fire (1985) and the Manchester United relegation (1974) where a replay was either not viable or unfair.  The latter case is not dissimilar to what happened when Orient played Colchester in 2017.  In that case the game was "abandoned" only for the remaining minutes to be played behind closed doors.   In a competition with 24 clubs, every game needs to be played to completion. 

Unlikely as it was outside the control of the club.  I suspect that Orient and EFL will review what happened and learn lessons for the future. Given the demographics of the attendees in League 1 & League 2, this is likely to happen again.  

The EFL took 4 days to come to that decision after the meeting on Thursday. Makes me think, there was some disagreement within their ranks, otherwise this would have been anounced Thursday afternoon.

Personally Im unhappy with this verdict, as we were winning with 4 mins of normal time remaining, and would probably won this game and taken 3 points, which would now put us level with Bolton Wanderers on the verge of the play offs.

If Lincoln were to win the rearranged fixture, they will have gained three points from someones death, which seems so wrong.

Unless Orient win the fixture, there's been an injustice in my opinion

Don’t forget the 10+ minutes of stoppage time so 4 mins is offering an exaggerated view.  Loadsa time left.

You also need to consider the numbers of goals scored late on in games.  Our leading 1-0 was no certainty we would win and Lincoln could feel very hard done by not having the chance to pull the game back if the score stood.  And rightly so.  Late goals are very common.

4 days!  I say that is a respectable time lapse given the circumstances, not wanting to be seen to be putting football first.  There was no need to rush out this decision publicly at all.  And of course both clubs will have been in the communication loop.

A reply is exactly the right outcome.  

Lots of views on this, many quite interesting.

My take is simple. It’s near impossible to legislate for every type of eventuality in football or sport in general. As we have seen in recent times the tragic death of a fan, stabbings in Belgium, pitch invasions, player near fatality, crowd issues and so on.

Some rules need to be broad-based. Apply a general principle, which is a replay, but offer the clubs and authorities some wriggle room. Wrong to set ‘replay’ in stone. Allow sensible club people the opportunity to offer input. In the case of the Lincoln game, had both Orient and Lincoln wished it I’m sure the flexibility in the rules would have allowed the EFL to have accepted the score as the result. But if either team rejects this then a replay is the fall back position. Or if the score was 5-0 with a minute to go then the flexibility to accept this as a result would hardly be contentious.

So a big no from me for endless rules that prevent the opportunity for people to come to an appropriate outcome, people are generally sensible. Where one cannot be reasonably agreed the EFL can make a decision.

In this instance I would be hugely surprised if Lincoln took any other position than to replay the game.

]When a league make rules football clubs participating in that league have no legal opportunities or reasons challenging rules. The rules of the league are binding. The clubs agree when they are part of any league to be bound by the rules as part of their acceptance to be part of the league organisation.
My suggestion is a way to document upfront in the rules which actually enhances the rules. The reason, is it is then absolutely clear of an outcome rather than the current rule which states a full match reply with a caveat of being at the discretion of a committee.

I fail to understand how the current option of their decision with no accountability is superior than pre stated rules .

Football has so many rules the ref and linesman manage. Having rules on deciding an outcome of a match is basically just an extension of what we all current have to tolerate in match rules during a game

It’s so simple it’s beyond my understanding that option would not be considered by the powers to be

One could have say all the variable match events such as I listed above and allocated to different pre set conclusions of what should occur

That is so easy to summarise for all football clubs and supporters to be aware and understand.

I thought the same! I guess the UEFA laws are different ever so slightly to the EFL laws.

I saw that but not really the same circumstances.

One is a terrorist attack/ double murder

The other someone's death from natural causes.

Exactly.  The situation is very different.  It highlights the value of not having rules set in stone and allowing the authorities the opportunity to look at each case individually before coming to a decision.

In both cases in my opinion the regulatory bodies have got it 100% correct.