Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on Monday said that “smaller clubs will die” without urgent action to safeguard the future of the lower leagues as proposals for a major reform of English soccer caused division and rancor.
The controversial “Project Big Picture” plan put forward by Liverpool and Manchester United has been branded a power grab for attempting to change voting structures in the English Premier League in favor of the “big six” clubs that also include Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
However, the proposals would provide the EFL with a much-needed injection of ￡250 million (US$326 million) to ease the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and allocate 25 percent of future broadcasting revenue down through the English pyramid.
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“If nothing happens, the smaller clubs will die,” FIFA chief of global football development Wenger told Sky Sports. “I don’t think that one payment will sort out the problem. The problem is much deeper than that. The money certainly has to be shared, the income of the top clubs has to be shared a fraction more with the smaller clubs.”
The British government and other Premier League clubs are among those to voice their disquiet over the proposal.
West Ham United, one of three clubs outside the big six who would be granted special status by the proposal due to their longevity in the Premier League, said they were “very much against” it.
Among the controversial proposals, the Premier League would reduce from 20 to 18 teams, with only two clubs automatically relegated.
The EFL Cup and Community Shield would be scrapped, allowing more time in the calendar for lucrative pre-season tours and more European games for the biggest clubs.
“You cannot ignore completely the tradition inside the country,” said Wenger, who was in charge of Arsenal for 22 years between 1996 and 2018. “Overall, the solution has to come from the federation, from the government, from the Premier League — to find a compromise to sort out the problems that already existed before coronavirus.”
However, the plan, backed by EFL chairman Rick Parry, does have considerable support in the lower leagues, where clubs face going to the wall unless there is a bailout.
This season has started behind closed doors and with restrictions increasing again, there appears little prospect of a return to fans inside stadiums in the coming months.
“If clubs don’t get something soon you will see clubs disappear, I would predict, within five to six weeks,” Leyton Orient chairman Nigel Travis told the BBC. “Before the pandemic, 75 percent of clubs were losing money — that can’t continue. The pandemic has, if you like, exacerbated the problem and we need to get it fixed. I know you are talking about ‘Project Big Picture’ — this is a great proposal as far as we are concerned. It is certainly very promising and clubs need it.”
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