It appears as though Bolton chairman Phil Gartside’s proposals for an overhaul of the structure of the Premier League have been dismissed by those who attended last week’s league meeting. This news comes as no surprise, and in truth Gartside’s proposals appeared half-baked and somewhat apologetic of the need to re-structure the so-called “greatest league in the world”.
That the plans have received such a frosty reception however, suggests cause for concern. Much of the power base of football – the men in high places – acknowledge that something needs to change in our game, yet even the most tentative of proposed plans are dismissed out of hand. I’m not suggesting that Gartside’s proposals should have been embraced and adopted by the league, but the nature of the reception is worrying.
This response does little to dispel the notion that football is clouded by an “everything’s ok” attitude, and that we can go on as we are indefinitely. I’m not sure why, as to me it seems that radical changes need to occur to drag football, and the Premier League into the 21st century. The much debated issue of club ownership and spiralling football debts aside, I see a league that fundamentally needs a radical structural reorganisation.
For all the posturing of Sky TV, and their ruthless promotion of the Premier League as the most intense, dramatic and edge-of-the-seat theatre available to the armchair consumer, the reality is that the majority of Premier League fixtures really offer very little to get excited about. At least half of the teams in the league fight for nothing more than survival, while another five or six contend for the scraps left by the “top-four”. Added to that, the fixture list is jam-packed with woeful mismatches and unappealing fixtures. A glance at the next round of league games offers the delights of Chelsea v Wolves and Bolton v Blackburn – one an embarrassing mismatch and the other a fierce Lancashire derby for the title of “least bad” team in the league.
Of course the Premier League can offer up excitement and drama and intrigue (thank you, referees), but the reality is that the current formula could be vastly improved upon. The games leaders however – and many of the fans who are happy to see things continue as they are – appear to be doing the game a disservice. Perhaps it is the old English assumption that “we invented the game”, and therefore it must be perfect as it is, that is holding the tide of footballing change back, but something needs to be done to open their eyes. I only hope it’s not too late by the time they realise.
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