5% Villa - No More Relegation??

[Meanwood Villa]

Playing devil's advocate, and incidentally I don't agree with scrapping relegation myself, the reason behind such a decision would not be particularly to favour the top 5/6. They're never going to get relegated anyway and which of the revolving door of bottom 3 cannon fodder they thrash twice a season makes no difference to them. The biggest gainers would be, dare I say it, teams like Villa who wouldn't have the concern of a nightmare season or two completely messing up our finances for years on end. In fact I suppose the real gainers would be teams like Leeds and Sheff Wed who this has already happened to, presuming they were invited to join in of course. The argument runs that if your share of the pot is guaranteed then you can take a longer term view of things and really look to build for the future without the catastrophic effects of the relegation trap door looming. Rugby League have already done this and it was broadly a popular move. Whether it's worked in terms of improving those at the bottom of the new closed shop is open to debate.

[Iago]

It would not be a bad idea for our club, IF it is implemented correctly.

[Chris Harte]

I though promotion-relegation was a corner stone of the whole PL, to ensure it has the best teams.

How do you know the teams getting promoted are better than those getting relegated?

You don't. But if you have one or two teams yo-yo'ing between the PL and the Championship and the teams they replace when they are promoted falling away to mid-Championship obscurity then that suggests that you've got the best twenty, or thereabouts.

As for a wage cap, I'm all in favour. The only footballers on this planet who should be earning £40k per week should be Lionel Messi and the like - not Habib fucking Baye.

[Hookeysmith]

The game is moribund

What next - top teams in the champs league dictating where and when they play their next league games - oh forgot thats already happened

Top teams around europe being seeded in champs league so the first rounds are just money making gimmicks - oops done that

Kick off times to coincide with the largest tv audience like the far east - imagine mid day KO for the bigger games - oh shit they have already done that as well

Teams talking about own tv rights to capitalise far eastern revenues and fuck all the rest - in discussion

The 39th game - no matter how many times it gets batted away it will never go away

I am close to telling the game to go to hell

[PaulTheVillan]

Not a chance.

[markus209]

It appears I should have waited for the "more to follow." The rest of the article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15336398.stm

Blackburn joined the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea in this class when they were taken over by Indian-owned Venky's Group last season.

But the Premier League told BBC Sport that the move would be a non-starter, with the Football Association retaining the power to veto any proposals.

A Premier League spokesman also said that they did not recognise LMA chief executive Bevan's claims, which come 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.

[Simba]

Thanks Markus but ambiguous ain't it. At least in terms of the Liverpool statement. I suppose they consider themselves a big club. Again, we (Pool) create the revenue so buggar the rest.

Who would, in any case, determine who makes up the new non relegation Premier League? Leeds. Nottingham Forest and a few others might claim history. Do they just choose a season and select from the top seventeen?

Attendance? Revenue? I dunno. Relegation is part of the game and just as the promotion play offs have created a new revenue stream for 'smaller' clubs it gives the PL a reason. The likes of Blackpool bring variety and excitement and special times for their supporters. And gives them a well deserved injection of PL/TV cash. It is what they fight for. The Wigans are just going to say 'so what' if selected.

Can't and mustn't work. But... wouldn't be surprised.

[darren woolley]

I'm old school I like the league the way it is three up three down whatever will they think of next.

[TopDeck113]

The argument runs that if your share of the pot is guaranteed then you can take a longer term view of things and really look to build for the future without the catastrophic effects of the relegation trap door looming. Rugby League have already done this and it was broadly a popular move. Whether it's worked in terms of improving those at the bottom of the new closed shop is open to debate.

And what about the long-established clubs with a history of a century or more who now don't stand a snowball-in-hell's chance of making it to the top table?  Teams like Featherstone, Hunslet, Batley or Leigh will probably never again get their crack at the big time.  I doubt any of their fans would describe their bar as "broadly popular".

Rugby League has prostituted itself for Sky's money even more than football, if that is possible, so using it as an example is ridiculous.  What else do you want from their litany of crass "innovations"?  Playing during the summer months?  Inviting clubs from other countries to increase the spread of the PL?  Creating franchises in areas of the country currently under-represented?  Deciding that the team that finishes top after 38 games are no longer the champions, because the top six then have to play a convoluted knock-out competition leading to a Grand Final (which in RL this year was won by the team that finished the fifth in the league season)?

[cheltenhamlion]

Its a hideous plan but you can bet your boots we would have our nose in that trough.

[Mister E]

Playing during the summer months?

Happens now, with the Euros and the WC, every other year; and with the extended pre-season tournies.

Inviting clubs from other countries to increase the spread of the PL?

Well, they have mooted this already with suggestions that the Glasgow clubs come south.

Creating franchises in areas of the country currently under-represented?

MK Dons?

Deciding that the team that finishes top after 38 games are no longer the champions, because the top six then have to play a convoluted knock-out competition leading to a Grand Final (which in RL this year was won by the team that finished the fifth in the league season)?

This is something that might well get suggested ... but I suspect the managers would be dead agin' it. But if the money's there from TV and the Asian markets, it could well become a reality; perhaps along with a reduced PL of, say, 16 clubs.

I'm not suggesting these 'cos I support them but simply to say that the reality of some of the ideas for 'developing the game' are out there in some format.

Now, as for the annual draft: that might be an idea worth chasing ...

[drisaac]

I though promotion-relegation was a corner stone of the whole PL, to ensure it has the best teams.

I'd file this under scaremongering.

Yep, I'd file it under scaremongering, and lazy journalism too. 

[Big Dick Edwards]

I'm old school I like the league the way it is three up three down whatever will they think of next.

I prefer it the way it WAS... any club, no matter how small with the potential to compete at the top with sound management. When Nottingham Forest could get promotion then win the League in their first season, then the European Cup the season after. When Wimbledon could rise from Non-League to the top division within a decade and go onto win the FA Cup. When Ipswich Town could win a European trophy, and yes, when our own club could rise from the third division to Champions of Europe in ten years.

It will never be that way again, of course. The Premier League, Sky, and in particular the Bosman ruling put paid to the dreams of the vast majority of clubs. Money is king.

[Somniloquism]

Is this the fifth or sixth time that this has been mooted as a possibility since the PL's inception? Now the scaremongering is that the dastardly foreign owners now want it.

Although someone mentioned that the Venky's didn't realise that relegation existed from the prem when they bought Blackburn.

[Legion]

Club Statement