Reimaging of English Football Soccer

[Son Of Jack]

It emerged yesterday morning that Liverpool and Man United are proposing a massive change for the English game with clear financial benefits for the English Football League but of course, clear benefits for themselves and the rest of the big 6 clubs too.

This thread is for the general discussion of the Soccer Reimaging of English Football. Please add to the discussion here.

 

[Son Of Jack]

I imagine the other premier clubs are not going to pass Fenway's developed plan even if United or the other established clubs support it.

Why would a currently strong outfit like, for example, Wolves or Leicester consider it when it hands power to rivals?

Why would a Leeds, Villa, Brighton support a system that if they have a bad year would leave it very difficult to get back up into the league again?

 

[Tom]

I suppose there is two ways of looking at it. There are some very good ideas there. The League Cup in my opinion should be scrapped, or at best exclude teams in Europe.

I always liked the idea of an 18 team league, I think it works quite well in the Bundesliga and towards the end of the season, far fewer teams have nothing to play for.

But I am always apprehensive when I see a power grab, and this is a power grab by the top teams. Clearly, there is a lot of bureaucracy with regards to getting things over the line at the moment. And the top teams clearly think "these teams get an equal vote to us, vote down a good idea, then get relegated 3 years later"

 

[David76]

Utterly stupid set of ideas designed to give the big clubs even more money.

With some bribes attached to get it through.

Special status for the nine longest serving clubs – and the vote of only six of those "long-term shareholders" required to make major changes, including amending rules and regulations, agreeing contracts, removal of the chief executive, and a wide-ranging veto including on club ownership

Transparent and horrendous.

 

[Best]

I think it's scandalous that the big boys are using the current financial plight of lower league clubs to try and force this through

I agree with removing the league cup, relegation playoff, even reducing the league to 18 - this would bring the EPL more in line with the major European leagues

But to suggest a system through which 6 "votes" out of 18, i.e., 33%, is sufficient to make big changes is an awful idea and will only to serve to increase the gap between the haves and have nots, which essentially is what this is all for

 

[Lee]

I would stop watching top level English football if this "reform" came to be.

Corruption and greed on behalf of the top clubs, that is all.

 

[Mouth]

A power grab dressed up as some kind of charity. Hopefully the one-club-one-vote system will successfully fight off the attempts to destroy it.

Can't see what's in this for any of the clubs who are not effectively guaranteed top-half positions for years/decades to come.

 

[Snoops]

This is purely an attempt for the elites at the top to consolidate their power. If I was to guess, the biggest thing they are after is the ability to veto any takeovers of other clubs and close the league off. Any Premier League takeover is a potential threat to their club. I'm sure there were a lot of people in Liverpool, London and Manchester uneasy at the thought of Newcastle being flooded with Saudi money. If they have absolute power they can nip anything like that in the bud going forward.

Everything else in that article is window dressing aimed at distracting various parties. Capped ticket prices/safe standing to distract the fans and hush money to appease the FA and EFL.

 

[Tom]

Transparent and horrendous.

It's just embarrassingly transparent, using the Covid crisis to dangle a few quid in front of the smaller clubs that they'll be desperate for to stay in existence.

 

[Bandit]

So some more info is after coming out:

The reason they want to scrap the Community Shield and League Cup is so they can play more friendlies. Think selling sponsored friendly tours to the US or wherever.

The £250m is not a gift. Its a loan

Even the "good" parts of this are beginning to look not so good.