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In football, the Premier League in the UK is often held to a high prestige and considered one of the best and most competitive football leagues out there – the start of the year has certainly had its difficulties as turmoil created by the ongoing pandemic has sewn some uncertainty particularly as fears of a second wave spreading have become apparent, but recent news has thrown yet more uncertainty into the mix – labeled as “Project Big Picture” the changes are certainly ambitious.
Possibly the most notable adjustment is set to be within the Premier League roster as hopes are that the max number of teams would be reduced from 20 to 18 – this would see two teams automatically relegated to the Championship each season with playoffs taking place toward the bottom too to determine who moves up and down. Another change would be to scrap the Community Shield with the potential for the Carabao Cup to be either scrapped or revamped for those outside of European competition.
Other changes would be present for loan rules which would allow certain clubs to send up to 15 players out on loan to other English clubs, up to 6% of the Premier Leagues gross revenue would go toward paying for stadium improvements and the away tickets for games would have a new cap of £20 with subsidies for away supporters looking to travel to games.
(Image from 90min.com)
In order for the changes to be put in place, a majority of 14 is needed in the vote with the likelihood that the bigger clubs would certainly remain onboard – this is because the nine longest serving clubs in the league would be given preferential agreement on decisions being made leaving just five other teams to make up the remainder of the vote, with those potentially facing relegation being the likely suspects to reject the offer. The nine clubs that would be present are Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, Everton, Southampton, and West Ham with the first six being the only votes needed for preferential choices.
This may throw some turmoil into the markets that rely on the Premier League too such as the recently recovered betting industry – despite changes to regulation such as Gamstop and the recent pandemic, the betting industry has found a healthy recovery with the restart of the league and the top betting sites not on gamstop have been able to continue without much disruption, but if big changes come to the Premier League with the Big Picture proposal then things could start looking much different.Of course these changes aren’t set in stone, as mentioned a majority of 14 is needed for the changes to be pushed forward, and there’s still plenty of time before a decision is needed – but with seemingly mixed support within the community and the fans not being too fond of the idea, it’s starting to look a little more likely that the changes hoped for will be much harder to come by than first anticipated.