Fear and loathing in the prem

Not to beat a dead horse on the Wigan match....but there is an interesting bit of Fulham talk on The Game podcast with Danny Kelly - sponsored by The Times. They talk about CC's defensive lineup and whether it is indicative of a fear present in a lot of managers of mid- lower-table teams of getting sacked. One interesting suggestion - reduce the number of teams in the prem to 16. I suspect this is something that has been brought up on these boards before.....

Anyway, it's on i-tunes store at The Game podcast

also at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,31329,00.html

 

Guarantee ya.. there's many in the FA who think a 16 team league would be better, with relegation limited to just the bottom team. And at that, the promoted team would have to meet certain business related conditions.

The REAL best answer is the Prem-Euro model where you pull the Chelsea/ManU/Aresenal/Liverpool{?} teams OUT of the English Prem running

 

Fewr teams means more competitive games. Players are required to play far too many games with two domestic cups, Europe (the UEFA Cup being the biggest offender) and a 20 team premiership. Reduce the league to 16 teams, get rid of the league cup and make the UEFA Cup a knock-out competition again. Demand more quality and not quantity.

PS As a sidenote...baseball and basketball should also take notes.

 

Splitting hairs, Don.... another time another pay scale.

But I'll use both your examples and ask:

What if the top teams got promoted out? If they were already IN the Uefa league, there would not be a Uefa Cup/Champions LEague conflict.

But, by the way... where is all the talent going to come from? Look at where the current US most attractive player {not ADU!} learned his craft... on the sandlot

 

How do the teams that get promoted up (to UEFA), get relegated down?

I want a full business plan Fog, not small glimpses of what could possibly be a good idea.

 

Same way as UP... if they're bottom of Uefa, they belong in prem..

BTW, why do I need be so specific? Anyone else?

 

Define "bottom".

In this day and age of ideas, we need specifics. Especially from 'The World's Foremost Authority'.

 

The premier leaguge came about for only one reason only - the top flight teams wanted control of the television revenue. Reducing to 20 teams was a spin off to ease fixture congestion in europe.

A european super league will exist when the top 12 clubs in Europe feel they are powerful enough to break away. There will be no promotion and relegation to that league. Could you imagine if a team like Fulham or Luton or Kiderminster Harriers dared to get promoted. The league will be invite only. (BTW Chelsea are not considered good enough as they are new money - not like Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U).

When it happens the only way to deal with it is to cancel the teams subscriptions to their national FA, this would prevent the teams taking part in any FA, FIFA or UEFA competition and remove them from recognition. I would suspect FIFA would not have the nuts to sanction it.