How a radical Premier League shake-up would impact on Sunderland

Exilium on 2020-10-11, 7:18 pm

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The plans dubbed "Project Big Picture" propose sweeping changes that would affect all of English football
Phil Parkinson's task of guiding Sunderland to the Championship is part of an overarching vision to lead the Black Cats back into the Premier League.
However, the route back to the top-flight could get even more difficult if proposals dubbed '‘Project Big Picture’ were to be approved.

Details of the proposal were broken by the Daily Telegraph on Sunday morning in an attempt to supposedly revitalise English football.
The Premier League would supply a £250m rescue package to the EFL, and the FA would be gifted £100m in order to stabilise the governing body through the pandemic.
However, the financial gesture also comes with strings attached - the controlling power in the Premier League would be concentrated in the division's biggest and longest-serving clubs.
This means historically important clubs such as Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and more would be denied a voice in the top tier. The one-club one-vote principle, which currently hands each club an equal say in the top-flight regardless of finances and success on the pitch, would be abolished along with the minimum threshold of 14 votes to pass regulation changes.
As it stands, Everton, Southampton and West Ham, would join the 'Big Six' as the division's decision-makers, and a majority of just six clubs would be needed to make regulation changes.
'Project Big Picture' would also reduce the Premier League to 18 teams, and a new play-off system would hand the sixteenth-placed team a chance to retain their spot at the expense of promotion-chasers from the Championship.
Relegated clubs from the Premier League would no longer receive parachute payments, with top-flight revenue now being shared more equally among EFL clubs.

The talks have reportedly been spearheaded by Livepool and Manchester United, and have the support of EFL chairman Rick Parry.
He told the Telegraph: “What do we do? Leave it exactly as it is and allow the smaller clubs to wither? Or do we do something about it?
And you can’t do something about it without something changing. And the view of our clubs is if the big six get some benefits but the 72 also do, we are up for it.”
For Sunderland - who suffered relegation from the Premier League in 2017 - along with other clubs harbouring Premier League ambitions, the proposals make the journey to the top-flight even more difficult.
And once there, clubs will be subject to the whims of the nine biggest and longest-serving teams, who hold all the cards when it comes to agreeing contracts, vetoing proposed takeovers and much more.