Foreign owners 'want end to Premier League relegation'

Thrill

Several foreign-owned Premier League clubs want to scrap relegation, according to League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan.
If more clubs are sold to foreigner investors, they may have enough votes to force through the change.
But Bevan hopes that a government-led inquiry can help prevent the proposal.


"We're very keen that the report is successful in helping the Football Association introduce a licensing programme for clubs," he said.
"Because there are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League.


"If we have four or five more new owners, that could happen."
Nearly half of the Premier League's 20 clubs are under foreign ownership, with rules stipulating that if changes are to be made to the format, 14 clubs must vote in favour of any new reforms.
Blackburn joined the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea in this class when they were taken over by Venky's Group last season.


The claim by LMA chief executive Bevan comes a week after the government demanded changes to the way that football is run.
Sports minister Hugh Robertson said that an FA-led licensing system would be brought in to safeguard against issues such as financial mismanagement, asset-stripping owners and tax avoidance.
The government also asked for rules to manage club debts and an overhaul of the FA board.


Last Wednesday, Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre also said the Premier League's overseas television revenues should be skewed in favour of big clubs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15336398.stm


No doubt wanting to protect their investments.


.

That's pretty disgusting. Where'd you get the article from?

Thrill

Deleted User wrote: »

That's pretty disgusting. Where'd you get the article from?

BBC. I've added the link

The_Kew_Tour

Will never happen.

Smegball

Even sillier than the FA proposed 39th game!

That_Guy

Bwahahahahahahahaha.

MagicMarker

How could it happen? If they did get rid of relegation then surely they'd have to get rid of promotion too?

mike65

Its a strange thing to even want, all the clubs that are under foreign ownership bar Blackburn and QPR are in scant danger of going down.

Chelsea
Man Utd
Man City
Liverpool
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Sunderland (ok slightly dodge but a decent manager would have them safe quickly)
QPR
Blackburn

Thrill

mike65 wrote: »

Its a strange thing to even want, all the clubs that are under foreign ownership bar Blackburn and QPR are in scant danger of going down.

Chelsea
Man Utd
Man City
Liverpool
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Sunderland (ok slightly dodge but a decent manager would have them safe quickly)
QPR
Blackburn

I think the likes of the bottom three on your list would be the ones that would propose something like this.

Don't see it happening myself, but if enough bottom half teams that are not foreign owned vote for it also......

Chucky the tree

Not surprised really. The american owners are all used to not having relegation/promotion. As owners it's a huge benefit to all of them.

That_Guy

Lower league teams in the Championship/League 1/League 2 would just pack it all in. What would be the point in competing if you can't go anywhere?

I can't see it happening but if it did happen I'd pack football in myself.

NeVeR

When I read it I was like " Whats the point in playing is you can't get promoted ?"

As some have said above why would any lower league even exist if they had no chance to move up.

It wont / cant happen !!!!

mike65

It would be the death of the game, I'm looking forward to seeing Southampton and Brighton back in the top flight (hopefully at the expense of sides like Blackburn and Bolton - Boltons loud mouth owner Phil Gartside probably would like a closed league - remember his two tier league proposal? That was cover for a plot to keep Bolton in the top flight)

_blank_

Works well enough for the MLS and A-League

TheTownie

It would require radical changes across the board so its a non-starter for the current leagues.

Although it might be considered if a European Super League is setup as that would starting from scratch so would be the most appropriate situation to try and implement such a system.

Soby

Not gonna happen

ArmaniJeanss

Article sounds like bolox.

I don't really see how the League Managers Associations chief would be in a position to know this. If the moneymen and chairmen (or conveniently according to the article the bloody foreign chairmen) were plotting such a dastardly plan, then I suspect they'd be clever enough not be taking the likes of Coyle, Moyes, Redknapp et al into their confidence.

BASHIR

As said before it's never gonna happen, such a stupid proposition to put forward.

eagle eye

Could you see a European elite league at some stage? If you think thats a possibility then so is the Premier League stepping completely away from the football league.

Rikand

well if that happened we'd definitely never be rid of steve kean

Fr Tod Umptious

BASHIR wrote: »

As said before it's never gonna happen, such a stupid proposition to put forward.

I would not totally rule it out to be honest, and it's not as if it's a totally radical suggestion.

Up until 1987 the Football league was a closed shop. An election took place between the bottom teams in Div 4 and the top teams in the non league system to decide if anyone went up or down, and in total up to 1987 only 6 clubs were elected and the expense of league clubs

To be honest promoted clubs have brought very little to the table in recent memory.

How have the following improved the premiership ?
Wigan
Hull
Blackpool
Reading
Birmingham
Wolves
Bradford
Watford
Derby
Barnsley
Portsmouth

A lot of the above have spend millions in the quest to get to the Premiership and spend millions trying to stay there, and a lot got into serious trouble as a result.

A totally separate league and EPL would actually curb the crazy spending by league clubs trying to get to the top flight and curb the spending of lover level premiership clubns trying to sty in the top flight.

I good setup may be to reduce the number of clubs from 20 to 18 and automatically promote West Ham and Leeds and the expense of Swansea, Wigan, Wolves and WBA

Davidth88

I remember clearly before the advent of the pyramid where Football League clubs had to go for ' re election ' . It resulted in an old boys club where by and large the club at the bottom of Div 4 were always voted back in . It also resulted in non league clubs becoming stale. You had clubs in the fore-runner to the conference basically becoming stale too.

No look at the system in place , a team like Wimbledon have come up from nothing to be a Football League club and have created fantastic energy.

Now as regards the PL and their bloated greed. What have teams like Blackpool done ? They have provided fantastic entertainment , you also have to remember a lot of these teams have a rich and great history behind them. Who can deny for example Nottingham Forest's , Preston NE's history ? ( choosing 2 at random ) .

To kill relegation ( and promotion ) would in effect kill half the games off , lets fast forward to April , if your team is in 18th and you are playing the team in 19th and there is no relegation , why bother playing the game ? And importantly , why should fans bother to pay to go and see a totally dead rubber ?

I love to see new blood , and welcome back old friends / foes in the league .

I would like to see a way to make the 'bigger' clubs less dominant TBH ( perhaps as a Chelsea fan I should be careful what I wish for )

Stupid / greedy plan , that thank god will never see the light of say I think

gimmick

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I would not totally rule it out to be honest, and it's not as if it's a totally radical suggestion.

Up until 1987 the Football league was a closed shop. An election took place between the bottom teams in Div 4 and the top teams in the non league system to decide if anyone went up or down, and in total up to 1987 only 6 clubs were elected and the expense of league clubs

To be honest promoted clubs have brought very little to the table in recent memory.

How have the following improved the premiership ?
Wigan
Hull
Blackpool
Reading
Birmingham
Wolves
Bradford
Watford
Derby
Barnsley
Portsmouth

A lot of the above have spend millions in the quest to get to the Premiership and spend millions trying to stay there, and a lot got into serious trouble as a result.

A totally separate league and EPL would actually curb the crazy spending by league clubs trying to get to the top flight and curb the spending of lover level premiership clubns trying to sty in the top flight.

I good setup may be to reduce the number of clubs from 20 to 18 and automatically promote West Ham and Leeds and the expense of Swansea, Wigan, Wolves and WBA

^ Why stop there? Why not get rid of Bolton for Southampton? Maybe Portsmouth would be more glamorous than Stoke.

Its a stupid idea which would actually kill the league stone dead. Its anti competitive. Aside from the top 6, what do the smaller clubs have to play for?

Fr Tod Umptious

Davidth88 wrote: »

I remember clearly before the advent of the pyramid where Football League clubs had to go for ' re election ' . It resulted in an old boys club where by and large the club at the bottom of Div 4 were always voted back in . It also resulted in non league clubs becoming stale. You had clubs in the fore-runner to the conference basically becoming stale too.

No look at the system in place , a team like Wimbledon have come up from nothing to be a Football League club and have created fantastic energy.

Now as regards the PL and their bloated greed. What have teams like Blackpool done ? They have provided fantastic entertainment , you also have to remember a lot of these teams have a rich and great history behind them. Who can deny for example Nottingham Forest's , Preston NE's history ? ( choosing 2 at random ) .

To kill relegation ( and promotion ) would in effect kill half the games off , lets fast forward to April , if your team is in 18th and you are playing the team in 19th and there is no relegation , why bother playing the game ? And importantly , why should fans bother to pay to go and see a totally dead rubber ?

I love to see new blood , and welcome back old friends / foes in the league .

I would like to see a way to make the 'bigger' clubs less dominant TBH ( perhaps as a Chelsea fan I should be careful what I wish for )

Stupid / greedy plan , that thank god will never see the light of say I think

What exactly did Wimbledon bring to the league ?

Blackpool were a joke last year, had a great start but were useless in the 2nd half.
I got laughed at here on St. Stephen's Day when I suggested that they would get relegated but the writing was on the wall.

They prospered at a time when long ball, unattractive football was in vogue, and when any old dump of a ground was sufficient to play in.

Forest's success mainly revolves around the Clough years between 1975 and 1993, a mere 18 years. Before and after that they were a yo-yo team spending more time below the top flight than above it and had a few FA cup wins

Preston NE have not been a force for 60 odd years (great graph here by the way)

What do you think about games between 11th and 10th in April, why bother paying them ?

A closed top flight would mean that teams that cannot afford it would not start throwing silly money around to try and get a piece of the premiership pie, and teams at the bottom of the premiership would not throw silly money around in January to try and survive.

forzacalcio

Bottom line, fan power would stop this. A quick boycott of all Premier league matches would change their tune (Worked in The Bundesliga)

Fr Tod Umptious

forzacalcio wrote: »

Bottom line, fan power would stop this. A quick boycott of all Premier league matches would change their tune (Worked in The Bundesliga)

Fan power in the premiership ?

Best of luck with that

nullzero

This idea is abhorant.
Just greedy business types wanting to negate and aspect of risk in their investment.

forzacalcio

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Fan power in the premiership ?

Best of luck with that

I for one am not a Premiership fan, far from it, but fans have the power, no matter what league in the world it is. They hold the key! But I see your point

Davidth88

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

What exactly did Wimbledon bring to the league ?

A closed top flight would mean that teams that cannot afford it would not start throwing silly money around to try and get a piece of the premiership pie, and teams at the bottom of the premiership would not throw silly money around in January to try and survive.

I meant the ' real ' Wimbledon , as in AFC Wimbledon , no one can deny the energy and real fan power they have created . Although the other Wimbledon were pretty special too, unless you are a Liverpool fan of course

Ok, Lets say you go for a closed top flight , who do you chose and on what criteria ?

Fr Tod Umptious

Davidth88 wrote: »

I meant the ' real ' Wimbledon , as in AFC Wimbledon , no one can deny the energy and real fan power they have created . Although the other Wimbledon were pretty special too, unless you are a Liverpool fan of course

Ok, Lets say you go for a closed top flight , who do you chose and on what criteria ?

This has nothing to do with AFC Wimbledon.

AFC Wimbledon will do fine, they may or may not rise to the top of the football league.

But if they do it will be clear that they are not very different from the old Wimbledon, small support base, small ground etc.

The criteria for entry to the premiership would involve some weighting of support base/revenue generation and financial stability/suitability

gimmick

USA USA USA

forzacalcio

Anyone who defends this is a WUM or needs their head examined!
How do you chose between say Swansea or Cardiff? West Brom or Wolves? Fulham or QPR?

mike65

Its no accident that the only places with closed leagues are countries where the game is "marginal" in the scheme of things - USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada

SEPT 23 1989

Well if it keeps Millwall out of the top flight i am all for it:D

Fr Tod Umptious

forzacalcio wrote: »

Anyone who defends this is a WUM or needs their head examined!
How do you chose between say Swansea or Cardiff? West Brom or Wolves? Fulham or QPR?

What is a WUM ?

leeroybrown

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

What is a WUM ?

"Wind-Up Merchant"

Fr Tod Umptious

leeroybrown wrote: »

"Wind-Up Merchant"

Thanks

I am not a WUM

People here are saying it will never happen, I think it is a possibility.

forzacalcio

It may happen, but it wont last long. Cant see supporters standing for this. Then again its the Premiership, fans are very different to other leagues around Europe. FFS you have Dubs, Cork and Waterford people travelling over on a weekly basis thinking they have some sort of affiliation to a club in a different country! Madness!

Fr Tod Umptious

forzacalcio wrote: »

It may happen, but it wont last long. Cant see supporters standing for this. Then again its the Premiership, fans are very different to other leagues around Europe. FFS you have Dubs, Cork and Waterford people travelling over on a weekly basis thinking they have some sort of affiliation to a club in a different country! Madness!

Well would the fans of the clubs really care

Would the fans of Bolton (if they were in it) boycott games beacuse they are playing West Ham instead of Brighton in the top flight ?

Kiwi_knock

The only way it could happen is if they got rid of all the present teams and created teams based on regions so that all regions were fairly well represented. I.e. one team for Manchester, one team for Liverpool, two or three teams for London.

I think it is a crazy idea that would kill the game, what would be the point of having leagues below the Premier League if the position they finish in does not matter. It would make the PL extremely boring as well as there would be little or no energy and excitement if a 17th placed team was playing an 18th placed team. If this happens you can say goodbye to English football.

That_Guy

forzacalcio wrote: »

It may happen, but it wont last long. Cant see supporters standing for this. Then again its the Premiership, fans are very different to other leagues around Europe. FFS you have Dubs, Cork and Waterford people travelling over on a weekly basis thinking they have some sort of affiliation to a club in a different country! Madness!

Are you fúcking kidding me?

Mr Alan

forzacalcio wrote: »

Then again its the Premiership, fans are very different to other leagues around Europe. FFS you have Dubs, Cork and Waterford people travelling over on a weekly basis thinking they have some sort of affiliation to a club in a different country! Madness!

Jaysus. That is mad when you spell it out like that-never looked at it that way before! :eek:

forzacalcio

That_Guy wrote: »

Are you fúcking kidding me?

???

Fr Tod Umptious

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

The only way it could happen is if they got rid of all the present teams and created teams based on regions so that all regions were fairly well represented. I.e. one team for Manchester, one team for Liverpool, two or three teams for London.

I think it is a crazy idea that would kill the game, what would be the point of having leagues below the Premier League if the position they finish in does not matter. It would make the PL extremely boring as well as there would be little or no energy and excitement if a 17th placed team was playing an 18th placed team. If this happens you can say goodbye to English football.

But there is no regional disparity in the current system either so why would you need it in a system without relegation ?

Clubs in the current Championship do actually win something you know, it's called the Football league Championship, and there is a trophy for it that has a lot of history behind it.
Clubs would still be able to win it

Are these games between 17th and 18th really that exciting ?

gimmick

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Are these games between 17th and 18th really that exciting ?

If they have something riding on them, yes they are. If it is the difference of staying up or relegation. If this new system were to come into play, it would mean nothing at all.

Simply put, anyone who is a football fan and understands the game knows this idea is thick. Doesn't say much for your opinion Tod.

super_furry

I'd love to know who's supposed to be a supporter of this because no-one has come out in favour of it at all and it's just the only source for this is the xenophobic, English-centric LMA behind the whole story. I'd love to know who Richard Bevan's sources are.

Fr Tod Umptious

gimmick wrote: »

If they have something riding on them, yes they are. If it is the difference of staying up or relegation. If this new system were to come into play, it would mean nothing at all.

Simply put, anyone who is a football fan and understands the game knows this idea is thick. Doesn't say much for your opinion Tod.

I like lots of sports and football is one of them.

But there are two things

1. I think that this is something that will happen in the future

2. People totally over rate the value that a promoted team bring to the premiership.

A promoted team from League 1 to the Championship can make a good fist of winning it or coming in the top three.
A team promoted to the premiership can at best hope for mid table consolidation, most aspire for 17th place

G.K.

Matches between any clubs can be exciting, so of course one between 17th and 18th could....

premierstone

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

I got laughed at here on St. Stephen's Day.

Nothing much has changed in the ten months inbetween so

argosy2006

IF anything we need 5 clubs relegated,
then one from there on,,,,,
to many teams in league ,

dsmythy

That_Guy wrote: »

Lower league teams in the Championship/League 1/League 2 would just pack it all in. What would be the point in competing if you can't go anywhere?

I can't see it happening but if it did happen I'd pack football in myself.

There is other leagues you know!