Fans of Newcastle United and Aston Villa don't need to be reminded of just how determined the Premier League is to protect the 'Big Six' even though one of them is actively fighting against the system.
Manchester City, the most successful Premier League side of the modern era, have turned against the Premier League now and are constantly at odds with the organisation, trying to force rule changes that, yes, may be for selfish reasons, but would also improve competitiveness throughout the league.
Newcastle and Aston Villa are waiting on the sidelines with the financial clout to make a change, but are hampered by current rules which prevent them from using those funds.
A recent vote on rule changes gave hope to these clubs, but 16 cowardly teams voted with the League resulting in just the tiniest of changes which barely have any effect.
Now football finance expert Kieran Maguire has spoken out about the changes on The Price of Football podcast (via The Chronicle) and he's clearly not happy about how things have shaken out.
"Does it now mean that the Premier League is saying in order to allow us to have more rules stacked against the likes of Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle, in order to have rules which make it more difficult for these clubs to have sponsorship, we want a competition which is going to discourage investment?. The whole thing is a mess and we're still awaiting the final judgement of the commission itself so you put that all together and it's a fairly sorry state of affairs.
"I've been monitoring Premier League meetings for years upon years and normally every vote would go through 20 to zero and even when it goes 19 to one, a few years ago, you would think, 'Oh yeah, that's a bit rebellious'. Now it's a 16 to four, which is a very resounding victory as far as the Premier League is concerned, but that's seen as being some sort of norm, which is evidence of the decaying relationship between clubs in the Premier League."
The Premier League is supposed to be the best league in the world, but how much longer can it hold on to that title when there's no excitement?
When Leicester City won the title a few years ago it was an amazing achievement and celebrated by everyone in the game, but now it feels like that kind of shock can never happen again and the status quo must remain.
Change needs to happen, and fast!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |