This shameful Premier League power grab is a threat to Newcastle United – and must be stopped

Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson took the club to the upper echelons of the division. Newcastle, in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, were considered a Premier League heavyweight.

Not now. The club is seemingly a makeweight in the league under the radical proposals drawn up by Liverpool and Manchester United for reform which would see the division trimmed to 18 clubs and an initial £250million given to the EFL, which is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Parachute payments would be scrapped, and the Premier League would instead give 25% of its future revenue to the EFL.

The proposals, understandably, have set alarm bells ringing on Tyneside. Would Liverpool and others, for example, be able to block a takeover which threatens them? This is particularly relevant given opposition to the proposed Saudi Arabia-backed takeover of the club.

They have cleverly been presented as altruistic, and necessary to prop up a crumbling football pyramid, and they have the enthusiastic backing of former Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, who is now in charge of the EFL.

“Project Big Picture provides a new beginning which will revitalise the football pyramid at all levels,” said Parry.

“This new beginning will reinvigorate clubs in the lower leagues and the communities in which they are based."

Of course, the EFL does need help – and there should be a conversation about the future of the pyramid.

However, to many, these plans look like a blatant power grab from the so-called “big six” of Liverpool, Man United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Chelsea.

They would have special voting rights along with “long-term shareholders” Everton, West Ham United and Southampton. United, relegated twice under Mike Ashley’s ownership, have been back in the Premier League for just over three years, and don’t qualify for enhanced rights.

Key decisions, significantly, would only need the backing of six of those nine clubs, and Newcastle, along with the rest of the league’s member teams, would no longer have a vote.

There are other proposals too. The Championship play-offs would include the Premier League club which finishes third-bottom of the division at the expense of the sixth-placed finisher in the second tier.

Also, the EFL Cup and Community Shield would be abolished, while Premier League clubs would have exclusive rights to sell eight live matches a season directly to fans via their digital platforms in all international territories.

This late proposal, clearly, will favour the bigger clubs, and favouring the bigger clubs would seem to be what this is all about, whatever is said about the football pyramid.

The Premier League has gone from strength to strength since its inception because of its competitive nature. There aren’t too many easy games, and it’s possible to break into the top six.

This move would seem to be anti-competitive, and it threatens the league's unique global appeal. The bigger clubs, presumably, would want a bigger and bigger share of the division’s revenues – and there would be nothing to stop them taking it.

They say never let a good crisis go to waste – and Liverpool and Man United aren’t wasting this one.

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