Premiership 2

[RichieS]

Every now and again it pops up in the media that the Premiership will discuss the possibility of a 'Premiership 2' at their next meeting. On hearing these snippets, I've always wondered what that would entail as surely just renaming the Championship the Premiership 2 would make little difference to anybody.

The other night I was struggling to get to sleep and for some reason the following idea popped into my head:

Restructure the leagues to have a 32 team Premiership 'pool' and 3 other divisions. I guess this would be done by taking one years Premiership and adding the top 12 of the Championship.

Over the summer, draw 2 16 team Premierships (un-seeded). These form Premiership 1&2 for the coming season. Each team plays each other home and away, obviously, so that's 30 matches each.

At the end of the season, the top team from each league have a 2 legged play-off to determine the winner of the Premiership. Meanwhile, the bottom 2 from each league go into a 4 team group, play each other home and away, and the winner of this group stays in the Premiership pool with the other 3 being relegated as now.

Repeat ad infinitum...


I think this has advantages in that it adds a bit more unpredictable excitement at the start/end of each season and reduces the number of matches that teams have to play (something managers love a good whinge about).

What does everybody think?

 

[Bizness]

You've not convinced me and you won't the clubs either.

How does CL qualification work? top 2 in either league? So based upon the luck of the draw we could have a free run while Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City battle it out for top 2 in the other league?

Never going to happen.

 

[Spurger King]

Sounds very American. Like Bizness said, it will never happen, but to be honest I wouldn't have too much of a problem with it.

 

[brett.spurs]

Or if you wanted to completely Americanize it ...

                                                           Premier League 1      Premier League 2

                                                             1 Man Utd             1 Chelsea
                                                             2 Arsenal             2 Man City
                                                             3 Liverpool           3 Spurs
                                                             4 Everton             4 Stoke
                                                             5 Bolton              5 Fulham
                                                             6 Newcastle           6 Sunderland
                                                             7 West Brom           7 Villa
                                                             8 Blackburn           8 Birmingham
                                                            ------------------------------------
                                                             9 Wolves              9 Blackpool
                                                            10 Wigan              10 West Ham
                                                            11 QPR                11 Norwich
                                                            ------------------------------------
                                                            12 Swansea            12 Cardiff
                                                            13 Reading            13 Forest
                                                            14 Leeds              14 Burnley
                                                            15 Millwall           15 Leicester


(1)Man Utd                                                                                                                                Chelsea(1)
              ------ (1)Man Utd                                                                                      Chelsea(1) ------    
(8)Blackburn                                                                                                                           Birmingham(8)
                                  ------- (1)Man Utd                                               Chelsea(1) ------
(4)Everton                                                                                                                                  Stoke(4)
              ------ (4)Everton                                                                                       Fulham(5) ------
(5)Bolton                                                                                                                                  Fulham(5)

                                                        -------- (1)Man Utd ----- Spurs(3) --------                                                      
                                                                       [SIZE=3][B]Winner: Spurs[/B][/SIZE]
(2)Arsenal                                                                                                                               Man City(2)
              ------ (7)West Brom                                                                                   Man City(2) ------
(7)West Brom                                                                                                                                Villa(7)           
                                  ------- (3)Liverpool                                              Spurs(3) -------
(3)Liverpool                                                                                                                                Spurs(3)
              ------ (3)Liverpool                                                                                      Spurs(3) ------
(6)Newcastle                                                                                                                           Sunderland(6)

With the final 4 teams going into the Champions League, I guess the bottom couple of teams could have relegation playoffs too. Easy.

Teams only play 30-34 games a season so there's their winter break they keep moaning about.

 

[Azrael]

Anymore and you devalue the purpose of the Premier League as a name and as a league in itself. "Premier" is part of the title for a reason.

 

[RichieS]

You've not convinced me and you won't the clubs either.

How does CL qualification work? top 2 in either league? So based upon the luck of the draw we could have a free run while Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City battle it out for top 2 in the other league?

Never going to happen.

Fair enough, that'd clearly be the main problem.

Interesting the references to Americanisation - there may be a lot unfair in their society but they do seem to run their sports on a pretty level playing field with drafts etc. I think it would be quite cool if by some miracle one of the leagues ended up with the current top 6 in it, giving teams like Everton, Bolton and Stoke a chance to have a run at the Champions League, and it would certainly provide some chance of lower sides being able to catch up a bit with the established CL elite.

Like you say though, the top clubs in particular would never buy it, which is a shame.