First Ferran Soriano and B teams. Then a £14.95 pay-per-view service. Now Project Big Picture. It's been a PR disaster from the Premier League in the shape of four days.
Liverpool and Manchester United were two of the 'Big Five', alongside Arsenal, Everton and Tottenham, who pushed for the formation of the Premier League. They thought the top clubs should break away from the EFL to have a bigger slice of the financial pie. It has worked for them, and decimated the rest of English football in the process.
Now, in the midst of a pandemic, these two clubs, and you'd assume the rest of the big six, are using this situation to further increase their stranglehold on English football. It's a cynical ploy from the elite clubs to twist the power of English football in their favour. Power being concentrated in such few hands is incredibly dangerous.
 |
| Liverpool owner John W Henry Photo by Webjedi |
It's important to provide balance and say that the fact that the Premier League providing a £250 million bailout and giving 25% of future TV deals to the EFL is a positive. Also, capping away tickets at £20 and potentially reintroducing safe standing are good suggestions. That, however, is where it stops.
The rest of Project Big Picture is an attempt from the big clubs to create greater financial muscle for themselves to the detriment of the English game. The Premier League would be reduced to 18 teams and the spare two teams would not take up a place in the EFL, meaning the 72 become 70. The bottom two Premier League teams would be relegated but the third bottom side would go into the Championship play-offs with three other sides. These terms and conditions of the bailout aren't helping the EFL in the long-term.
Parachute payments, what EFL chairman Rick Parry called "an evil that must be eradicated", would end but what would happen to the £250 million that would normally be transferred down to the relegated clubs? The Premier League should not keep that money but increase their solidarity payments massively.
Rick Parry used to be the CEO of Liverpool and the Premier League. It's clear even as EFL chairman he still has his Premier League hat on, thanking Liverpool and Manchester United for "showing leadership and exercising responsibility". It's sickening. As the former CEO of the Premier League, Parry should remember that he signed the tripartite agreement with the EFL, which states the must be three promoted and three relegated between the divisions and Premier League clubs must compete in the League Cup.
If Project Big Picture is approved, the inclusion of the third bottom side in the play-offs and the scrapping of the League Cup is clearly in breach of the tripartite agreement. Parry does not have the best interests of the EFL at heart.
There are also proposals for the Premier League to start later to give clubs more time to play lucrative pre-season friendlies across the globe and the requirement for clubs to compete in a summer Premier League tournament every five years. This deal is blatant self-interest from John W Henry and the Glazers to make as much money as possible.
Americans own half of the big six and in American sports, there is no relegation. Here's the dangerous part. Nine clubs (the big six plus Everton, Southampton and West Ham) would be given special status in voting rights meaning the support of just six of these to pass new laws or veto proposals. This could be on new club owners (Newcastle fans look away now) or the distribution of broadcast revenue.
If these regulations had been in place months ago and Mohammed bin Salman had bought Newcastle, the big six would definitely have vetoed this. Regardless of the political obstacles, the potential for Newcastle to have the spending power to challenge the top clubs would stop it from happening. It is all to do with greed.
They wouldn't stop there. Why wouldn't they try and end relegation? Americans don't like it and that's who'll be running English football. The tripartite agreement would be a redundant piece of legislation. They want to entrench their power and make irreversible changes to the pyramid.
Since 1992 and the formation of the Premier League and rebranding of the Champions League, the finances in football have sky-rocketed and the small number who have benefitted from this have become so grotesquely powerful that they see no limits. The proposals would create a dictatorship run by the most powerful. It is the next logical step for the superclubs to create a European Super League.
The only hope is that this still requires a 2/3 majority. It makes no sense for clubs like Burnley or West Brom to agree to this. If this does get passed, the fabric of English football will be changed forever.
Comments
Post a Comment