moomba
TheBrownDog
In other words clubs are free to manipulate the system when it suits.
Newcastle & Leicester bullshitted to their advantage to get the postponements they wanted in games they see as winnable but probably would have lost with weakened teams.
Or they have got/had too many unavailable to field a team according to the rules. Anyone can request a postponement, the league say yes or no according to the criteria they've set.
Not sure what happened with Leeds against City but anyone could tell they were struggling to field a competitive team.
Perhaps they just decided it was a match they were losing anyway and made the call that it was better to get the game out the way.
Surely that's their choice to make. Imagine if Leeds wanted to play, and the league stepped in and said "no, you can't". That would be shambolic.
FWIW, if I was the league I'd have a list of all eligible players for each team (25 man squad plus eligible youf players) and clubs would have to report on the status of each of those players daily
I'm sure this already happens, but anyone unavailable should have an accompanying isolation note or fit note, together with proof of positive PCR tests or NHS notification to isolate.