A weird thing is happening in football. The teams currently in 16th and 17th in the Premier League, with two matches to go until the end of the season, have given up. The bottom three teams (of 20) in the table are so far behind these two that they are in no danger of relegation, so they have not played their strongest sides in their recent matches. Technically, they have to play their remaining games but they don't want to.
Why? Because of this:
It's the Europa League trophy. Although it's only made of silver, for these two teams it is gold dust. Winning the Europa League doesn't just win you a trophy, it guarantees entry into next season's Champions League, worth upwards of £100 million in prize money. You could probably get a half decent goalkeeper for that - these two certainly need one.
A week tomorrow these two will battle it out in Bilbao in the Europa League final. One of them will win the lottery, the other - languishing in 16th or 17th place in the Premier League table - will suffer shame and humiliation. The winning manager will be able to splash out on a new goalie, the loser will probably lose his job.
The team finishing second in the Premier League, with probably upwards of 70 points, will win nothing. These two have only about that between them. In any normal season this would have been relegation form; only the abysmal performances from Southampton, Leicester City and (sadly) Ipswich Town, all of them promoted to the Premier League just a year ago, saved them from even greater ignominy.
Something's wrong here.
The Football Governance Bill is currently going through its Committee stage in the House of Commons, having already passed the House of Lords. It has 136 pages but we need concern ourselves with just one.
Yep, it's the Football Regulator.
It's probably a bit late but I'm sending these proposals for amendments:
- No newly promoted teams are allowed to be relegated; that honour would go to the next in line (Hello, 17th!)
- (according to 2(e) above) No team which makes no effort to win their remaining matches (that's you, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur!) should receive any prize money for that season [prize money, dependent on final league position, in the Premier League is upwards of £100 million]
And to UEFA, governing body of the Europa League:
- Should a participating team in the Europa League finish lower than halfway in their current domestic league they shall not be rewarded with a trophy or entry to the following season's Champions League, even if they win the Final
That way, these two teams wouldn't bother with the Final, like they (shamefully) haven't bothered with Premier League all season. Karma.
I like the rule about newly promoted teams getting a year’s grace. So promotion would be worth even more. Does that happen in any other sport? I wonder what the unforeseen consequences would be.
ReplyDeleteI don’t particularly agree with other point about teams ‘not trying’. A championship club putting out a team with no first team regulars might be open to this criticism but not a premier league club with a big squad and big club full of youngsters and reserve teams. I have no issue with other players getting a chance to shine, and I am sure the club would expect the same high standards from them. Perhaps you’re just annoyed at spurs and Man U 1st team players ‘not trying’. But I suspect they are
Here is something from chatGPT:
ReplyDeleteThere are some sports leagues where newly promoted teams cannot be relegated in their first season. This practice is often implemented to help ease the transition for teams moving up to a higher division. Here are a couple of examples:
1. **Scottish Premiership**: In some seasons, newly promoted teams have been granted a "protected" status for their first year, meaning they cannot be relegated.
2. **Certain Leagues in Basketball**: Some basketball leagues, like the German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), have rules in place that provide new teams certain protections during their inaugural season.
These rules vary by league and can change over time, so it's always best to check the specific regulations of the league in question.
As for your last rule about europa league winners not getting champions league qualification, you’ve obviously been listening to Wenger and the Sky Sports pundits (Neville, Keane et al) who all agree that you should get automatic qualification to Europa league only, though their argument was mainly that there are too many English teams in the CL
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