I have looked into my crystal ball, well actually I’ve looked across the Atlantic - and I forsee a very different footballing map of the country in 20 years time, writes blogger Tim Walters.
Be certain of one thing, whatever happens in US sport eventually finds its way over here.
Two decades from now there will be instant replays, there will be more than one referee, but most importantly there will be a Premiership with NO relegation.
So if your team is not in the top flight you can forget any dream of ever being there.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing, I’m just saying it’s inevitable.
The last three or four years have seen an influx of foreign owners. They’re not going to go away and they’ll be joined by more for one simple reason - MONEY.
Already they own seven of the top ten clubs in the Premiership and it is only a matter of time and readies before they have control of the majority of top flight clubs.
They’re not doing it for love but because they know the huge TV revenues will increase, never to the levels that American Football or Baseball can boast in the States, but still to some pretty mind-blowing figures.
Football or more pertinently Premiership Football is what keeps the likes of Sky going. Sure they can fill their schedules with darts, golf, rugby et al but they know exactly where there bread is buttered. That’s why Setanta are trying to muscle in on the act and why the price of Premiership football will go up and up.
With the best will in the world I’m afraid that the Championship, League One etc are up there along with the golf – they fill the schedules in preparation for Grand Slam Sunday, Super Duper Saturday or however they might want to brand it.
Wolves against Burnley or the Baggies travelling to Preston might be interesting but it’s a very parochial interest and doesn’t cut much mustard in Beijing, the Sub Continent or New York. There’s a place for it in the schedules but it’s the sort of place that Arena Football or Lacrosse occupies on the American networks.
And the Premierships’s foreign owners already know that. The likes of Villa’s Randy Lerner, pictured, or the Glazers at Old Trafford are well aware of the brand they’ve bought into. Think that they’re going to give that up for the possibility of relegation? Think again.
They’re investing both for the prestige of being associated with success (all owners have a large degree of ego) and for the extra revenue they’ll generate.
That’s why they’ll vote eventually to have no relegation. The top flight will remain exactly that and if you’re lucky enough to have a Premiership side at the time that’s the way it will remain. The rest will be bottom feeders, picking up the scraps that the big fish cast aside.
The future’s bright, the future’s got a star-spangled tinge to it!
Agree with what I think? I thought not. Post your comments below.
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34 Comments
Spot On… this will happen.
Then i will no longer follow Football as a sport because it wont be a sport but a business.
Greed is a nasty human trait…it even starts wars…but humans never learn anything from there past
Good Night
I dont know What Tim Walters has been drinking,but ill have the same,what would be the point of fininshing top of the Championship,and not getting promoted,it doesnt make much sense,where is the insentive? The british game will have changes,of that im sure,instant replays etc etc,but not a prem league where nobody gets relegated,get real Mr Walters !!
Spot on. I said the same 3 years ago and was given the bird.
Last year, when it became clear that a team could lose every league match 10 - 0 and get £35M plus another £20M over the next 2years, that within 5 years the 3 relegated clubs will be so strong they will all go straight back up. Within another 5 years the Premier will tell the FA they will break away.
I was told to get a straight-jacket and find a nice little hole somewhere.
Your blog is very astute; but I believe your time scale is too conservative.
Well anyone witnessing West Brom’s demolition of Charlton Athletic on the weekend of Grand Slam Sunday and then having to watch the premiership drivel the next day when 2 goals were score in two games of dour football will know what entertains and what doesn’t.
And Americans will not be impressed with the pathetic attendances at Wigan and Fulham either.
The idea that they won’t be interested in relegation /promotion for financial reasons is something the Football League and Football association will do well to heed but do we really want the shambles of MLS in England the home of football. NO! I think the author needs to heed the voice of hte most important of all England’s teams - their paying supporters. No relegation from the Prem means there will be 15 clubs at least with nothing to play for. What a bore!
The fans will vote with their feet and the Championship will again be more intersting - even if there is no promotion to the greed league.
Mindblowing stuff from Tim.
Nostradamus must be quaking in his grave after reading this stuff…
I don’t agree that relegation from the Premiership will be abolished.
The Premiership is already looking stale with the top four more or less pre-determined at the start of each season. Of those four, Man U and Arsenal at least have genuine flair but Chelsea and Liverpool are functional bores.
The excitement comes at the other end of the table. The scrap to stay up is of equal, or more even, interest to many fans.
There would also be a knock-on effect on the Championship - the most exciting league in the world! (even if the football is often rubbish, Baggies excepted of course)
No you are wrong!
Premier League, Championship etc etc will stay and promotion relegation will remian.
But the TOP five or six teams will leave and join a Euro League permanently.
The UK isn’t the only place the overly rich and stupid Americans/Russian etc have bought up teams.
Being an owner in JUST the English League will be too limiting and a EURO market is what they will want.
And the ENGLISH LEAGUES will improve with a better level of ENGLISH content.
It may happen but it would be the death of football as a mass spectator sport,attendences are already down.
It is just a matter of time untill people walk away from a sport that is just too expensive to watch.
Perhaps that is their ultimate aim, to kill football,and export american football!
Great blog tim and you are spot on football should be enjoyed by all what ever team you support, Having no promotions or relegation would just kill the game off completely, It,s alright these big money people coming in but when they start losing money they will soon disappear and take the bulk of there investment with them
The concept of no relegation from the Prem is a mind blower BUT as has been said, it IS more than likely to happen in the near future because club owners will protect their investment at any cost!
The Prem has financial power the others do not, so they do what they are told! If non-relegation does happen (?) what will the other leagues do? Will they resort to being part-time or amateur players? From a supporters point of view, the idea is not workable or acceptable but then supporters have no say in how the game is played or how it is run, we are always left with a “take it or leave it” situation and should this come about then most probably many will leave it!
The usual knee jerk reaction from many I see. The facts are these: -
1. The NFL is a vastly more competitive Pro Sport league than the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A and Bundisliga.
2. The accumulated wealth of the NFL is shared far more equitably than in any European league.
3. The interests of the fans is protected to a much higher degree in terms of the power of TV to dictate and affect games scheduling.
Does anyone think they can argue with me on these points? I challenge you - get your facts ready.
If there is no relegation from or promotion to the premier league then the rest of football will shrug its shoulders and carry on.. the championship will become the top division and all leagues will just “move up one”.
We will miss the premier league for as long as it takes to realise that TV is still interested in putting money into teams like WBA, Wolves, Leeds, Forest, etc…
The smaller teams caught in the prem “net” such as wigan, reading ect will shrivel and die as they fail to live with their bigger counterparts.
For every Mr Learner there will be a Mr Yeung - or “investors” like the Anfield Americans who suddenly decide that putting money “into” the club is not what they had in mind - and then there are the serial buyers like Ray Ransom - just desperate to buy a club - any club - and play the big man… till the money runs out.
You know what ??? I quite like the championship after all - its where the real football is played !
Walters, you cheeky blogger. There may not be much interest in Baggies v Preston at the moment, but put the word ‘Premiership’ before it and fans would tune in from all over the world. Baggies v Preston is far sexier than Fulham v Wigan for instance. Perhaps we could educate the world with a bit of football history; one of those clubs has won the league and Cup double. (The other scraped a very lucky Wembley win in 1954.) However, no amount of spin could ever give anything involving Burnley box office appeal. Unless you’re into banjo-bashing, that is.
Premiership,Championship,League one
etc.No matter what competition they
happen to be in.Wolves have been
my team for over sixty years, and always will be.UP THE WOLVES.
Agree the aim will be no relegation.But to work ,without all but the top few teams dominating and the rest ossifying and losing support,will require 2 other US professional fundamentals; the “draft” and salary caps.
Can you see Chelsea or United agreeing to that?
How long before we have to call it “soccer” instead of football for the dimwit Yank market?
10 years?
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. well this is something to bring the new year in with, I AGREE’with most of what you say tim but i can see the (F.A) forming an elite premiership with only 12 sides in it with 1 relegation spot into a new premier 2nd league with 1 automatic promotion spot! we all know now that football is money driven and it’s no surprise to me, it’s not a question if it will happen, it will happen and soon.
Totally agree with what you’ve written. The only thing missing is a refernce to franchises. The small Premiership clubs will not shrivel and die, the franchise will be moved to another city / town. Wigan to Cardiff, Fulham to Dublin.
Not going to happen, we are going somewhere else.
The much talked about (in the 80s atleast) European Super League. Top 4 clubs will break away and set up a new European league. No relegation from there. Thats a much closer model to the NFL.
Imagine Man U vs Madrid, or Liverpool vs Bayern every week!
Wolves will become the equivalent of College football.
You know in your heart its going to happen.
IMO Max has made a good stab at what will evolve. No team will be safe as they will all be franchises, just has happened in the US, to be bought and sold. Look at the money that could be behind QPR say, why could they not buy ManU put the team in London, worldwide TV audiences dont care. Think how this would ease the traffic every other week on the M6 as the club would be nearer its home supporters! Far fetched, the Glazers are business men not football supporters, money counts.
I have followed two teams for a long time now. 1. The Baggies, 2. My local wolverhampton league team. I get just as much pleasure from following them when the Albion are away. It costs me a whole English pound to get in and there are just a many thrills to be seen, (and plenty of laughs also). If the premiership goes one way (to dollar heaven) I think I will go the other and return to grass roots.
Tim.
I’d like to agree with the people that ridicule your views but in reality I believe you’ve hit the bullseye. Although many things may happen in the meantime, the nouveau supporters may move on to the next fad, leaving Sky to withdraw their millions but more likely football will thrive as the new religion with the premier league it’s bible. There will be no place for Albion and Wolves (not fashionable enough) although Villa may be tolerated for a while (after all, doesn’t that well known fan Prince William follow them.) I hope that Happy is right in thinking that the rest of us will carry on in the Championship, which would become the ‘real’ supporters league, although I’d been praying for a European super league that would remove the blot of the big time Charlies and their glory hunting fans. If anyone has stuck with me this far I’m amazed, thank you, I needed to get that off my chest.
I believe a lot of people would like all this to happen. But there will be 100,000 fans demonstrating at FA headquarters if it does. Sky Sports subscritions would be cancelled and violence would errupt at every Premier League game, caused by non-Premier League fans.
Remember, the majority of football fans are not fans of current PL teams. Money talks and the majority will always hold the cards. therefore, it wont happen.
If the top 4 teams in the premership go off on a greed tour and join a Euro league then I dont think there will be much sleep lost from fans of other clubs. Its a catch 22 situation anyhow I feel as its fantastic this season so far going down the Albion and being entertained like we are and having a goal fest to boot…where as when you’re in the prem its a big struggle….you kick off the season just playing to survive….going down most games knowng you’re gonna get thumped……but at the end of the day , the premiership is the place where the big money is and a sure way you know that your teams future is guaranteed because of that big money thats invested.But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter where my beloved team are…I’ll support em through thick and thin like I have done over the last 30 years…and it sounds like the same can be said for most who have posted on here….because at the end of the day…we’re not glory hunters…we’re just loyal supporters who pay our money because we love our (local ) team…..and the glory we get is just an added bonus.
i totally agree with the concept of clubs / owners chasing money and profits. in one way they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t. and, as has been mentioned by others already, surely the greatest untapped profit potential has to be europe due to the vast audience that would be generated in an instant. the obvious potential of celtic or rangers v liverpool, man u etc shall not be ignored for ever and an european league, of some form, shall be the way to do it. plus the obvious barca, real madrid etc fixtures that shall be generated.
all the marching on the fa won’t make any difference.
so i’m not so sure a closed shop prem will happen. if it were to then it would have to change along the lines of the NFL with smaller leagues within it and a play off for the title. this would keep the interest going for most of the season. teams then may have to apply to join if they can guarantee revenue streams etc. then you are into framchise land.
i just can’t see all that happening. much more likely to be a euro league. huge potential.
up the Throstles.
A euro super league is a possibility. Also NO relegation is also a possibility in the premiership.
However, people need to think this through fully INCLUDING the fans of the clubs who would be in the new elite with no relegation.
You may have NO relegation but this means the clubs become FRANCHISES! owned by rich individuals and corporations. And franchises can be MOVED!
So say West Ham UNITED are in the no relegation league and a Billionaire wants to set-up a club in Bristol because Bristol council will build him a 50 000 seater stadium if he brings premier/euro elite football to the city.
West Ham’s going rate is say 200 Million pounds in the elite league. If the Billionaire does a deal with the owners of West Ham United then BINGO it becomes Bristol UNITED and is now playing in Bristol and West Ham have no football team anymore!
Just talk to a Baltimore Colts American Football fan. That’s how the new leagues would actually work. When you mention this to the supporters of elite clubs they start to look a little unsure! After all Wimbledon have already done this by becoming the MK Dons!
This is the real future! 36 Elite EURO franchises playing in TWO euro leagues. The top four in each league then enter a playoff series culminating in a SUPER BOWL style Champions League to find the EURO Champions.
If you want your club, town or city to have representation in these leagues then you simply have to buy one of the franchises for say 250 Million!
The futures not bright - it sounds blinkin’ awful!!
Although I feel Tim is right to raise the possibility, in my heart of hearts I really don’t think it will ever happen.
I think those in charge, if they were to introduce such reforms, underestimate the trouble all this would cause (maybe they wouldn’t care - you know clueless some Americans can be).
More fans watch league football every week than the Premiership. When I say ‘watch’ I mean go to matches - not the Man United fans who live in Halesowen, watch it on telly and have never been near a football ground in their lives.
And what keeps all those punters going to Wolves, Walsall, Albion & Plymouth is the dream that they will eventually take their place in the ‘big league’. To shut the door on such clubs, along with other ‘greats’ of the game like Notts Forest, Sheff Wednesday, Leeds etc, would be an absolute and complete disgrace. Questions would be raised in the house. It would be the death of football. Not a brave new ‘Yankee doodle razzmatazz’ dawn, but the end for the majority of fans.
This is not America - this is England. I don’t care about the Indian Sub continent, Japan or LA. I care about my son, my daughter, my nephews and nieces and their right to see Wolves win the Premier League and Champions League double in 2027. Incidentally the year that West Brom will beat Man United in the League 2 playoff final.
Some things are more important than money - like culture and history - and the dreams of ordinary football fans. Football is as important to the history and culture of this country as the National Gallery. So belt up Yanks and keep your hands off OUR NATIONAL GAME!!!
what an utter load of..
im not going to go into what you just said and list the 30 plus things wrong with what you just said.
this is editorial toilet paper and if i could print it
i know what id use it for
If this does happen, it will be a disgrace to English pride and the fight of the British bulldog, we will not only abolish football, but, as we have already through: foreign players/owners, we will abolish what is in the sole of every Englishman, passion, belief.
It simply won’t be allowed, there will be protests from evening till dawn, until eventually publicity decreases and foreign ownership is driven out…
Whilst i think a lot of what Tim says will happen I dont believe promotion and relegation will be scrapped. Extra refs and video replay seem to be just common sense for me. Getting decisions correct is vital for teams who go down by a point or lose cup semis or finals.
As a fan i would never want to see relegation scrapped andthe financial implications would ruin more clubs than it does now.
if you were a baggies fan at the final game when they beat pompey to stay up how many of u would have gone to the game if there was no prospect of being realegated. the game would have meant nothing.
What of the prospect of some of the leagues oldest teamsnever being able to play in the top flight again?
As for structuring like the NFL it simply would not work. salary cap would be needed to spread the talent and make it more competitive and i dont think the likes of Arsenal,Chelsea,Liverpool and Man U are going to give up some of their best players because of a cap. Also in the NFL the worse the record you have the higher the draft pick you get for the players coming out of college. how are we going to organize a draft in England? who would go into it?
Finally if the top 4 want to play in a Super League then let them at least villa might have a chance of winning the league! I for one would not lose any sleep over that.
randy lerner will not vote for no relegation from the prem,great win last night lads keep it up!
if the top four do decide to do one and up and off to a euro league, then the championship and football league is going to need some strong chairman and leaders to set the deal up.
yes, madrid vs liverpool, milan vs barcelona every week may sound exciting to some groups, but will it maintain its interest ? will these clubs want back in to england if it doesn’t work out ?
the point being that if this does happen - these clubs should not be allowed to come and go out of the english league system as and when they see fit, and out chairmen need to fight for the football league clubs long term future.
US sports without promotion & relegation are just meaningless.
Remember back to the days before the play-offs…the season was over by Christmas for 2/3rds of the Div 2 teams. They weren’t going up, & they weren’t going down. They just played out the season. How dull. Ironically, the Wolves were always locked in either a promotion or relegation battle, but since the play offs they’ve been perpetually mid table. But thats just my point…imagine how tedious the last 20 mid table years would have been without the play-offs, let alone without promotion. Even this dreadful season will go down to the wire, with us & a dozen teams still in a battle for the play offs in April. But if you couldn’t even go up at all…really what is the point?
I live in Oklahoma. There is no major league american football or baseball team in the State, & no prospect of EVER being one. So how exiting is that? That leaves monster trucks, NASCAR & rodeo!, & armchair fans of major league teams from other states.
People here see sport as entertainment only…they do not have lifelong alleginces like we do. There’s no concept of teams trying to ‘win ugly’ cause there’s no real point in winning.
Sport here needs to be non stop action with glitzy cheerleaders & half time shows. This weekend all we wanted at Blackpool was one shot, & one goal to sneak a 1-0 win & get 3 points. It didn’t even have to be a good shot. An own goal that dribbled over the line would have made me very happy..& if we entertain thats a bonus, but not a priority.
Despite all the accusations of being fickle, we’re not. Fickle fans are those that switch teams & follow whoever’s doing best at the moment, cause all they want is to watch an entertaining game on TV and associate themselves with a successful team (err, aren’t those called Man U fans?)
So how about a Euro or even a World League?
If the top 4 leave the Premier, & maybe the next 4 go up in the Euro play offs….then 8 Championship teams would get promoted into the Premier. This could be it Mick, even you could manage 8th!
Simon :)
The irony of US psychology is life is all about winning. Everyone loves a winner. The reality is they are actually afraid of losing…so theres no way they would ever risk relegation. Even the leagues are structured to reward the weak, & ensured they are strenthened for perpetual major league status.
I coach Pre-K soccer & they don’t even allow scores to be kept, just so no one is a failure…& everybody wins… Yay!!!
Nice try Tim…but you’re star spangled vision ain’t gonna happen.
Simon :)