Several foreign-owned Premier League clubs want to scrap relegation, according to League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan. Bevan fears that if more clubs are sold to foreigner investors they may have enough votes to force changes. But the Premier League said relegation and promotion were part of its rules and added to league's strength. Bevan hopes that a parliamentary inquiry into football goverance would also help prevent the proposal. "We're very keen that the report is successful in helping the Football Association introduce a licensing programme for clubs," he said. "Because there are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League. "If we have four or five more new owners, that could happen." PREMIER LEAGUE FOREIGN OWNERSContinue reading the main story â¢Aston Villa (Randy Lerner) â¢Blackburn (Venky's Group) â¢Chelsea (Roman Abramovich) â¢Fulham (Mohamed Al Fayed) â¢Liverpool (Fenway Sports Group) â¢Manchester United (Glazer family) â¢Manchester City (Sheikh Mansour) â¢Sunderland (Ellis Short) â¢QPR (Tony Fernandes) â¢*Arsenal's Stan Kroenke is a majority shareholder Nearly half of the Premier League's 20 clubs are under foreign ownership, with rules stipulating that if changes are to be made to the format, 14 clubs must vote in favour of any new reforms. Blackburn joined the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea in this class when they were taken over by Indian-owned Venky's Group last season. But the Premier League told BBC Sport that the move would be a non-starter, with the Football Association retaining the power to veto any proposals. A Premier League spokesman also said that they did not recognise LMA chief executive Bevan's claims, which come a week after the government demanded changes to the way that football is run. Sports minister Hugh Robertson said that an FA-led licensing system would be brought in to safeguard against issues such as financial mismanagement, asset-stripping owners and tax avoidance. The government also asked for rules to manage club debts and an overhaul of the FA board.
This story appears to be a flag-waving exercise by Richard Bevan. If the Premiership clubs did/could decide to abolish promotion/relegation then the major inintial benefit would go directly to those clubs who have been newly promoted and those who are generally involved in the relegation battle. As far as I an aware, only 1/2 of these clubs are actually foreign owned!
Yup - total non-story that shows up both Bevan and all the journos who have hyped it up. Missing from the story is one crucial fact: The FA have a veto on changes to competition rules.
first what job is bevan running for... second reduction i nthe number of clubs is a more likely move. third the big clubs don't give an arse about elegation issues.
