English football authorities would meet to negotiate what appears to be the biggest reshuffling of the national game in 30 years, with extensive changes to the FA Cup campaign, Carabao Cup, and Community Shield on the discussion list.
According to The Times report, six leading figures from the Premier League, FA, and EFL will be meeting for the first time on Friday, January 6, to talk about a range of proposals from top division clubs.
These proposals include eradicating FA Cup repeats, limiting teams in European tournaments to only field youth teams in the Carabao Cup, and shifting the community shield from its ordinary slot as the season’s curtain-raiser.
Bigger clubs in the Premier League believe the game, which is usually held on Sunday before the first EPL weekend, affects their pre-season build-up as well as lucrative overseas trips.
Likely alternatives include playing it either on the opening weekend or mid-season, shifting it to an international market such as the United States, or, making it an ‘All Stars’ game which sees each EPL club providing two players each to face stars from other European campaigns.
Meanwhile, Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has recently spoken of his fondness to see the Premier League launch its own ‘North vs South All Stars’ tournament similar to the NFL and NBA.
Moreover, The English Premier League has submitted proposals under the renowned New Deal for Football, which could result in the most crucial alteration since its inception in 1992.
The objective for the submitted proposal by EPL is to reduce match congestion from the 2024 summer season.
The English football leading figures are reportedly set to discuss the biggest shake-up in the national game in 30 years, which could have Premier League clubs withdraw from the League Cup.
This movement is also to deal with the Premier League money sharing system.
Most of EPL money goes to the lower divisions, with the EFL demanding £300m in additional funding.
However, the top teams have been pushing for just over half of that amount for a long time now.
While the sole objective for the FA in today’s meeting is to raise money for the grassroots game.
This was suggested by MP Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review of football, and it will even consider trading its TV rights through the Premier League if it leads to increased revenues.
Meanwhile, some attendees of Friday’s meeting will reportedly include Premier League chairman Alison Britten, who took office just this week, as well as her FA and EFL colleagues Debbie Hewitt and Rick Parry.
Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, will also be in the crucial meeting, including his colleagues Mark Bullingham of the FA and Trevor Burch of the EFL.
However, If the three bodies; Premier League, FA, and EFL fail to reach an agreement, a statutory independent regulator formulated by the government – who are expected to release a white paper showing its plans in the next few weeks – would intervene on a financial settlement.
