Most liked posts in thread: Premier League and EFL reform [UPDATE 3 Dec 2020: Rescue Package Agreed]

I believe it's a good outcome for most EFL clubs. Cutting through all of the crap about the £250 mill, what the PL is really proposing is to scrap most if not all of the parachute payments and to use that money for the benefit of all EFL clubs and not just those who have been relegated from the PL. That's a good move in my view but will depend on how the EFL wants to distribute the extra funds to lower league clubs. The slightly worrying aspect is that the PL will have control of all football TV broadcasting including all EFL games. That might well prevent the EFL from entering into TV broadcasting contracts both domestically and around the world.

Most of the other stuff is really about increasing the voting power of the Big 6 and creating more space in the football calendar which they'll want to fill with more lucrative European games. For somebody who has little interest in PL football, I'm ambivalent but can understand the Big 6's position. It's the PL clubs outside the Big 6 (or now 9) who might feel agrieved.

 

To be a member of the Big 6, the club has to be called Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Man City or Man Utd. No other names are permissible! That's a bit of a problem for the other 86 clubs.

It's West Ham, Southampton and Everton who are to be given 'special status' (whatever that means) but it suggests that those 9 clubs will be first among equals when it comes to voting. Newcastle and Villa aren't in this 'special 9' although as they've pointed out, both clubs have spent more time in the top flight than Man City. But then Man City is backed by one of the wealthiest families in the world. That must just be a coincidence.

Whether the PL and the rest of the PL clubs supports what is still a proposal by Liverpool and Man U remains to be seen! We haven't heard the last of these proposals imo.

 

"Leagues One and Two: promotion of 3 clubs. Relegation of 4 clubs"

 

The National League North and South have been planning to increase the size of their league and until clubs having financial issues and also COVID they would have done so for this season. This would fit in with those plans fairly well. I believe there was also talk of some of the leagues below looking to increase numbers because the size of the divisions down there is all over the place. You can have 4 leagues at the same tier, one that has just 12 teams and another than has 24 and the other two somewhere in the middle

 

It would never have resulted in the PL simply saying 'here you are EFL, £250mill of our money to keep you going for as long as you need it'. There were always going to be strings attached to the funding deal, both footballing and structural ones. It also surprises me that the Govt are opposed to the proposal since it gets them out of an EFL shaped hole and could provide much needed money in their red wall areas.

Yes, there will be losers in the midle to lower end of the PL and particularly for those who are relegated and will no longer receive parachute payments. The proposal should be supported by football fans just for that!

There is a bigger game going on here and it shouldn't surprise anybody that it's the two main US owned clubs which are leading on the proposal. So far Sky and BT have been a little quiet on this. The last thing they want is for US TV broadcasters to get more involved. The notion of either Amazon or NetFlix extending their own access to the PL games will be of major concern to BT and Sky.

 

Well let's look at another thing. You know this extra money that the EFL wants. For a few season now increasing payments to the EFL has been on the table. The big clubs have been fine with it but you know who keeps blocking it? The yoyo clubs who like coming back down to the Championship with guaranteed income many times most of the other Championship clubs. Everyone having more money doesn't benefit them. And again these yoyo clubs add very little, they are usually just whipping boys especially the club coming up via the playoff. The PL would have been so much better off having Brentford in it who have shown real forward-thinking that Fulham. Brentford may have gone back down still but you have to feel as a club they would have tried

And actually, a shorter season played only on weekends would most likely INCREASE club income as it allows for a better TV schedule especially internationally which will increase the value. It also makes for more meaningful matches which again will increase the value.

You are also forgetting that both UEFA and FIFA are pushing for more and more matches in their competitions and more and more teams involved. World Cups, Euros and the likes being expanded are going to put more pressure on top players and take longer to complete. Shaving a few weeks off a season will help them. Also as UEFA add more club competitions and make the existing ones also bigger we are likely to see more PL teams get European places. That's extra money and a bigger reason we need fewer domestic midweek games because teams are obligated to play in these if they qualify because of England's UEFA membership. The same with the expanded Club World Cup which is going to be a much more important and more taxing. Liverpool won the last one having played just 2 matches against Monterrey of Mexico and Flamengo so hardly tough games. The other teams taking part were Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia, Espérance de Tunis from Tunisia,Hienghène Sport from New Calidonia (That hotbed of great football teams) and Al-Sadd from Qatar. There is no surprise that the last non-European team to win was Corthinians in 2012 and that in the 16 times its been played its only not been won by the Champions League winners on 4 occasions and on those 4 it was a Brazilian team

The 2021 version will contain EIGHT clubs from UEFA alone, with 4 of those likely to be the last 4 Champions League winners, 6 from CONMEBOL. In total there are 24 teams to be involved in the first year and it will be held every 4 years with the talk it may even be expanded further so that every regions Champions league winners from those 4 years being involved and UEFA getting places for all 8 finalists and the 4 Europa League winners (And CONMEBOL also getting more places)

Also the pre-season tournament benefits all the PL clubs as every club has to take part at least once every 5 years. And the extra two weeks of preseason also means more chance of a preseason tour to get players fitness up

I would also disagree that the PL hasn't improved the English game. The facilities in the PL and the level of coaching is vastly superior. The problem the English game has is that the EFL hasn't kept up, to a point that many clubs that had Training facilities have sold them. When you couple that with the FA mandate to make the reserve league an u23 league which has made it unfit for purpose that's whats actually stalling so much talent progress. There is a reason why clubs are more eager to send players out to the Dutch or Belgium second tier because despite there being less money down there than in league 2 in England they actually have high-level facilities.

I would also point out there is no evidence that the big 6 did anything to block the takeover of Newcastle. It didn't even get to the point of clubs having a say. The Premier League had concerns about the ownership as the consortium refused to answer and give assurances on the influence the Saudi State would have. We have already seen how City and PSG are being used to sports wash countries reputations and they are basically just a PR machine for that country with the owners willing to lie, cheat and bend every rule. And it's even worse with the Saudis as they have a state-controlled pirate channel broadcasting sport that BeIN owns the rights to the whole Arab region which has put the PL deal with BeIN in doubt and outside the UK the middle east is perhaps the most important area for broadcasting.

Also what makes you think United have any more chance of falling out of the big 6 under the current setup than under the new setup? If they are on such a downward trend as you implying a smaller division puts them more at risk

 

I don’t believe they can. That infrastructure money is just for EFL clubs as far as I'm aware