Premier League Considers Play-off Plan for Champions League

(WFI) The English Premier League is considering a play-off system to determine which club will assume its fourth and final European Champions League place.

At present the league’s fourth-placed club goes through to the final qualifying round of the Champions League, but the new proposal would mean a series of play-offs between clubs finishing between fourth and seventh.

The intention is to inject further competition into a league whose top echelons has long been dominated by a “big four” consisting of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. Since 2004 only Everton have broken into this exclusive club.

Reports in today's Guardian newspaper revealed how the proposal was presented to EPL clubs at the league's most recent meeting on Feb. 4.

The EPL will further investigate the proposal’s viability over the coming weeks and report back to its ‘shareholders’ – as the league terms its 20 members – in April.

Fourteen of the EPL’s 20 members would need to support the proposal for it to come to fruition.

Today, World Football Insider contacted several EPL clubs, but none were prepared to comment at this stage.

WFI understands that the proposal does, nevertheless, have considerably more momentum than the plan to bring Celtic and Rangers into the Premiership, which clubs have never seriously entertained.

However, even if clubs do lend their support to the play-off plan it would not be introduced until the start of the 2013/14 season at the earliest. The EPL is committed to a broadcast model until then and has no intention of breaking it.

The play-off idea was just one of several plans put before the league’s 20 clubs as part of its strategic review. It is understood that it originates from the league itself, rather than one of its members.

EPL sources were today tight-lipped as to what other suggestions had been put before clubs, but WFI believes that the “39th game”, to be played overseas, is off the agenda for the foreseeable future.

Amongst supporters the proposals have received a mixed response, with internet messageboards abuzz with debate on the issue.

On Everton’s When Skies Are Grey forum, one fan wrote: “At least there might be an unfamiliar name in the draw each year, meaning teams outside the ‘Sky 4’ get a chance to earn some extra monies and compete in the long term.”

But another supporter, writing on Liverpool’s Red and White All Over the World, was less enthusiastic: “So the 7th placed team could end up winning the European Champion Clubs Cup? How does that sit with everyone? Makes me feel sick. MODERN FOOTBALL IS RUBBISH.”

Wigan urges EPL to rein in debt
Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has called on the Premier League to curb its endemic debt culture. In a letter to EPL CEO Richard Scudamore, Whelan proposed that clubs should not be allowed to borrow sums exceeding 25 per cent of their annual turnover.

“There should be a limit on borrowings — not as a set amount, but as a percentage of turnover,” Whelan told The Times. “They have to do something about it.”

His proposal comes as Wigan’s EPL rivals Portsmouth face liquidation, having run up debts of £60million ($94m) – which represents around 85 per cent of its 2009 turnover.

It would also protect clubs from the sort of leveraged takeovers that have caused such opprobrium among fans of Liverpool and Manchester United. Last month, United revealed they are £716 million in debt on a turnover of £278 million.



Written by James Corbett (james@worldfootballinsider.com)
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