The plan is mostly a bodge job that doesn't really solve much in all honesty. The calendar needs clearing and more money needs to find its way down to the EFL and there's such an easy way to do that but instead we're going to do something half arsed and revisit the situation in a few years time.
Just scrap the League Cup altogether and cut the PL to 18 teams as it was always meant to be from the day it started. The only reason we still have a League Cup is because it's the biggest money maker for the EFL and it's the biggest money maker because of the likes of Liverpool, Utd etc. Keeping it without those sides will see the revenue it generates tumble but we'll still have a load of fixtures that nobody really cares about and because 13 PL sides are still in it, it doesn't help much with the calendar issues. Even EFL sides put out 2nd strings in it these days and we all talk about nobody respecting it but it's almost always won by the biggest clubs. Just get rid of it and clear a huge space in the calendar at the start of the season. Cutting the PL to 18 sides won't make any meaningful difference to the revenue the League makes but the £200m odd that gets paid to the sides finishing 19th & 20th will make a huge difference to the EFL.
On top of scrapping FA Cup replays, give any EFL side that draws a PL side the option of playing home or away - they can decide whether they want home advantage of whether they want the big pay day from a trip to Anfield. Also, don't give PL sides any prize money from the FA Cup. I think winning it is only worth around £1-2m, which is a drop in the ocean to a PL side - at the end of the competition tot up the total that would have been paid to PL sides and redistribute it to all lower and non league sides.
Doing those few things will provide the EFL with all the money it requires without any of the PL sides losing a penny and it also cleans up the calendar. And if a PL side wants to go to the Far East to play a friendly in the winter break, so what, let them. We celebrate the fact that the PL is a global League and the biggest reason why the PL is so far ahead of the rest of Europe is because of it's global appeal but everybody acts offended if clubs go to these countries. We're happy to accept the billions in revenues that these fans generate the League but don't dare go and play a friendly over there!
Just scrap the League Cup altogether and cut the PL to 18 teams as it was always meant to be from the day it started. The only reason we still have a League Cup is because it's the biggest money maker for the EFL and it's the biggest money maker because of the likes of Liverpool, Utd etc. Keeping it without those sides will see the revenue it generates tumble but we'll still have a load of fixtures that nobody really cares about and because 13 PL sides are still in it, it doesn't help much with the calendar issues. Even EFL sides put out 2nd strings in it these days and we all talk about nobody respecting it but it's almost always won by the biggest clubs. Just get rid of it and clear a huge space in the calendar at the start of the season. Cutting the PL to 18 sides won't make any meaningful difference to the revenue the League makes but the £200m odd that gets paid to the sides finishing 19th & 20th will make a huge difference to the EFL.
On top of scrapping FA Cup replays, give any EFL side that draws a PL side the option of playing home or away - they can decide whether they want home advantage of whether they want the big pay day from a trip to Anfield. Also, don't give PL sides any prize money from the FA Cup. I think winning it is only worth around £1-2m, which is a drop in the ocean to a PL side - at the end of the competition tot up the total that would have been paid to PL sides and redistribute it to all lower and non league sides.
Doing those few things will provide the EFL with all the money it requires without any of the PL sides losing a penny and it also cleans up the calendar. And if a PL side wants to go to the Far East to play a friendly in the winter break, so what, let them. We celebrate the fact that the PL is a global League and the biggest reason why the PL is so far ahead of the rest of Europe is because of it's global appeal but everybody acts offended if clubs go to these countries. We're happy to accept the billions in revenues that these fans generate the League but don't dare go and play a friendly over there!
It's the small 14 that are kicking the ladder away, which is the point you're seemingly missing. This is a PL wide plan that will need the support of at least 14 clubs and the reason why enough of the smaller sides will want this is because they cannot afford to keep losing 10s if not 100s of millions of pounds. Putting spending limits in place that prevents all clubs from ****ing money up the wall will mean they no longer need to lose that money in order to stay 10th in the PL. Look at the history of the PL and you'll see almost all clubs have lost money and for the vast majority, they've never achieved anything for those losses. These clubs have seemingly decided that it's cheaper for us to achieve nothing this way. Does it create a glass ceiling? No because one is already there, this just further reinforces it.
