Cardiff City have been told they must replay their Championship clash with Rotherham in full.
The decision taken by the Football League means the Bluebirds' 1-0 lead from the game, which was controversially abandoned after 48 minutes, is wiped out.
Jadon Philogene had put Cardiff ahead in the crunch battle between two sides looking to avoid relegation into League One before the referee called off the match after a downpour of rain.
It is understood Cardiff presented a strong case to EFL bosses about what they felt was a lack of urgency from Rotherham ground staff to clear water from the playing surface and get the game back on. They supplied lots of video evidence to back up their claims.
Bluebirds fans were furious with what happened on the day, with some branding it a farce.
The League hierarchy studied what Cardiff had to say in detail, but in the end felt too much of a precedent would have been set by either awarding the Bluebirds the three points, or restarting the game at 49 minutes with Sabri Lamouchi's side retaining their one-goal lead.
Cardiff were pressing hard for either of those options to be brought into play.
Instead, Cardiff and Rotherham need to find a suitable date for the rearranged fixture, with April already choc-a-bloc for the Bluebirds.
The most obvious and perhaps only available date, it would seem, is Tuesday, April 25, sandwiched between Cardiff's home game to Stoke on the previous Saturday and their trip to face Neil Warnock's fellow strugglers Huddersfield the following weekend.
An alternative option could be early May after the Huddersfield clash, given the final round of Championship matches has been pushed back to Bank Holiday Monday on May 8. That afternoon Cardiff head to Burnley for their last league game. But the May date would be a last resort.
The League's call means Lamouchi and his team are facing a frantic period of April matches and must cram eight games into a 29-day time frame. However, they will hope their Championships status is secure by the time they are forced to head back up to Rotherham.
The League said in a statement at tea-time on Thursday: "In respect of this particular fixture, the matter was referred to the EFL Board under EFL Regulations at the request of the clubs involved.
"The EFL Board reviewed submissions from the clubs giving consideration to factors including the time of the abandonment (48th minute) and the subsequent time remaining in the contest, alongside the differing circumstances at play had the fixture been re-started from that point on a re-arranged date.
"In considering matters such as these, the League seeks to adopt consistency with previous occurrences where fixtures have been abandoned for weather-related reasons and could not be re-started.
"A new date for the game will be announced by the clubs in due course."
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