Project 'Big Picture'

[foxes1]

So it looks like 2 of the so called big 6 want to change the Premier league who would be for or against it.
Personally I am against it although something needs to be done to help clubs lower down the pyramid, but this is the wrong way about it.
Whilst not looking at all the proposals all this so called project means is that the '6' will have a monopoly on voting anything through with no opposition (Lets face it Southampton, West Ham & Everton are only added as a sweetener, but they wont have a say on anything as by the time they get their vote is will have passed).
Also why is Rick Parry for it anything to do with the fact he has been tied in with Liverpool in the past.
Also it may well be a ploy to stop another club doing a 'Leicester City' and win the title again.

[GreatBarrWolf]

Smacks of the 'Big Boys' being frightened of the little upstarts like Leicester, Wolves and the others who could potentially challenge them in a couple of years time. Everton West Ham and Southampton are only in their as makeweights who will roll over and have their tummy's tickled.

They are just trying to protect themselves and keep the majority of the money amongst those that have it. Simplest solution to the League Cup debate is for any team that secures European football to not compete in the competition. What's that I hear you say, "The sponsors will not put the money into the competition if the big teams are not in it?" Just proved my point that they are all money motivated and not bothered about their little brothers down the road.

Unfortunately these 'Big Six' are no longer football clubs based around their local community, they are multimillion pound businesses driven to making as much profit as possible by whatever means possible.

What's next on the agenda? Back to the 39th game in a far flung foreign field?
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[Thedoog10]

Unfortunately the game of football at the top level I have known and loved for over 60 years is slowly dying a death.

[Dorking]

Simplythe fact they want to scrap the Community Shield (Charity Shield to anyone over 30) so they can play more lucrative overseas tours says it all. No good will come of it.

[pafcprogs]

Much as I am traditionalist I accept that football is no longer a game that truly belongs to the fans at the highest level.....

Like any business the larger companies seek to isolate themselves from risk, be that by investing in their brand, ensuring they can attract the best talent and flexing financial muscle.

The best time to make those changes and have the least resistance to them is when your potential opposition is at its weakest so what better time than in a pandemic. The clubs driving this are spending hugely to ensure they maintain a player advantage.

The artificial creation of the Premier League now leads to a list of clubs that have been in it longest....there is no rational reason why it should start counting in 1992.....other than it suits their argument. Why not 1945? Or 1960?

We have seen in the past that the Premier League will flex its financial muscle to get what it wants like the payment to clubs for talent developed by them where it was take it or lose the overall contribution made ...allowing the bigger clubs to harvest young talent for minimal cost. The result, closure of multiple academies and EFL clubs fighting over loans of talent that cannot break through at the club that pays them.

For me the key elements on this are as follows

A reduction in influence over the future direction of the league and its financial security/constitution as power vests in a self appointed elite group. I too think it is no coincidence that this is taking place as the likes of Leicester, Wolves, Everton and perhaps more startlingly Leeds and Sheffield United threaten the top six. Sadly I suspect the inclusion of West Ham is partly because they are not perceived as a long term financial threat so it makes them a safe club to include.

A reduction in risk by the inclusion of a play off for the final relegation place....well you never know do you so just in case of a bad season lets reduce the potential risk.

The nice one is a veto over changes of ownership.....so no chance of a new billionaire creating a challenge to the status quo.

No lock on the finances being for ever nor any safety net against breaking away into Europe ( perhaps leaving their B Teams to fulfil the pesky Premier League fixtures)

The problem is right now you have around 86 professional clubs looking at the money piles and watching them decline with no sign of that changing anytime soon. Note that the first tranche is a loan against future revenues.

So the decision will ultimately be made by a group of individuals who if they don't find a solution either have to dip further into their pockets or cash in their chips and cut their not inconsiderable losses. Our chairman has tipped in close to 20 million and tall of building a sustainable club financially but how can you do that when you have no customers.....

For me this isn't about the next two or three years but the next ten or twenty....and at what point the pipers who call the financial tune come back for their reward.

Because come back for it they surely will.....
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Most Plymouth post 1959 but plenty of others including reserves, friendlies, Cup Finals Internationals and Club issues, handbooks and other sports.

[martino]

GreatBarrWolf wrote:

What's next on the agenda? Back to the 39th game in a far flung foreign field?

Perhaps the formation of a Super League with the other big Clubs from around Europe?

[cardiff55]

Ian Holloway's thoughts on it are here!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08v2zsf

[colchestersid]

I'm past caring

Ideally the top 6 would split off from the rest and play in their own league. They could play each other 6 times a season, then the top 4 would qualify for the play offs with the winner of those being determined by a best of 7 World Series. My maths makes that 38 games

It would be great, Liverpool v Manchester City 13 times in one season, what's not to like

And Manchester United would finish bottom every year

[Pacey Winger]

As a Scot, i dont mind admitting to being a huge fan of English football........in the eighties, a simpler time when football focus and Saint and Greavesie were at their height. The football was great and I never missed Match of the Day.

I was in my teens then of course, so allowing for the fact that things always seemed better when your younger, Im still of a mind that football in England is about to disappear up its own backside.

In Manchester last year and decided to do the Etihad tour.....I can now tell you how much things cost and how much this is and that is.....but I couldn't tell you anything about the history of Man City.....hardly mentioned!

Its a shame really

What happens when the Russian and Arab billionaires get bored and move on?

That level of money creates a terrible greed and its evident in this plan in my opinion........but that level of money cant last forever either.

Its all great at the time of course but something tells me its a car crash waiting to happen, I hope im wrong

[Cantona93]

The genie was out of the bottle nearly 30 years ago when the Premier League was formed, the TV money flooded in and the European Cup was revamped.
I’m surprised it has taken this long for the biggest clubs to really flex their muscles and seek to maximise their revenues.
The premier league product sells so well Worldwide because the matches are usually competitive. I very much doubt that the big 6 will want to diminish this by preventing the likes of Leicester challenging them for the title once in a lifetime or others challenging for the higher places. Or cutting off the pyramid.
Getting rid of the parachute payments and introducing regular monitored payments to lower league clubs can only be a good thing for them along with the salary caps.
The finances of most championship clubs were pretty dire well before the pandemic and these proposals are likely to provide much needed stability and a lifeline to many clubs in that league and below.

[Five and In]

I think that most fans can see that it's nothing more than a power grab by the big clubs with owners that are used to getting their own way and all about money.

The proposed £250 million bail out for the EFL is a drop in the ocean compared to how much money will come flooding into the pockets of the big six and they have chosen to act now because the smaller clubs are in serious trouble due to lockdowns etc.

As for Southampton, West Ham and Everton receiving a "Golden Ticket" to the brave new world, what happens if one of those gets relegated?
Would they get a free pass and survive or would their "ticket" go to the next in line...say Wolves?

If the six broke away and ended up playing each other six times a season, how boring would that become?
As a Spurs fan, I love the North London Derby with Arsenal, but I'm sure that if we had them six times a season, the buzz around it would fade to a crackle.

A Super league will come one day for sure though.
Probably with Bayern and PSG driving it as they have little competition in their own leagues, but our league is not like that and we don't need them.

I wrote in my book a few years ago, a possible way to please the big / greedy clubs and keep our structure at the same time.
In my scenario, the Champions from each major league would drop out of their domestic league the following season to compete in a Super league with each other. The following season they would return to their domestic leagues (with the exception of whoever had won it) and be replaced by the new Champions of each league and so on.
My idea is not perfect and I don't want it, but it could be a way forward.

Final word in this rant (sorry), Rick Parry - What a nasty piece of work he is. Conspiring against those he should be representing and filling his own pocket as much as possible like Gordon Taylor at the PFA who as usual is invisible at present

[foxes1]

Looks like the premier league have rejected it

[Footyfan]

The proposal has been rejected for now but this issue will not go away because those driving it, i.e. the big 6 owners are all foreign businessmen who have no regard for history or the fanbase.
One only need look at how major sport operates in the USA where there is no promotion/relegation, a franchise owner can simply move the club lock stock and barrel as has just happened with the Oakland Raiders now being the Las Vegas Raiders. and were formerly the LA Raiders............
Both Liverpool and Manchester Utd have American owners driven solely by money, why else did the by into English clubs.
All Premiership owners now live in fear of being relegated and the loss of money that would inevitably mean.
All the major European Leagues are now 'won' by a very small number of teams aka Celtic/Rangers, Barcelona/Real Madrid..... with other teams simply making up the numbers.
The game is now underpinned by TV money and agents, should the TV money drop there will be a time of reckoning, until then the moves towards an elite 'super league' will continue.