One of Albion's survival rivals has said the Premier League bottom six have been given “grossly unfair” treatment.

Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber has hit back at criticism of the Canaries’ opposition to the plan to return at neutral venues.

Webber believes his club and other top-flight strugglers have been unfairly picked out for sabotaging the proposal, which now looks set to be shelved.

He said: “I was in that meeting and there was a lot more than six clubs who discussed their dissatisfaction around neutral venues.

“For it to be portrayed as the bottom six trying to kill a football season I think was grossly unfair, because at no point did we say we didn’t want to play.

“It’s definitely disappointing because we didn’t deserve that as a club and I don’t think football deserves that. At times like this I think we all need to come together and we’ve got to fix this.”

Webber also called for promotion from the Championship to be cancelled if their season is not completed.

He said: “What we could not accept is a situation where we play all our games and get relegated, but the Championship can’t play, and they automatically promote some teams who haven’t finished the season.

“For anyone who has got promoted from the Championship, it is a 46 or 49 game slog. It needs to be settled on the pitch - both coming up and going down.”

Gary Neville has accused top-flight officials of staying “invisible” through the crisis, leading to confusion over how and when the game will return.

Few top-flight executives, with notable exceptions of Albion deputy chairman Paul Barber and Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish, have publicly stated their positions during ongoing negotiations.

Neville said: “The Premier League have been invisible in these last few weeks, the medical experts in football have been invisible in these last few weeks - there was another way of doing this.”

“I think at this moment in time we do need to be communicated to properly as a country as to why it’s safe to return to football - not just the players because the fans want to hear it as well.”